Spyro the Dragon: The Next Generation
by Buffbill
Summary: There has been peace for many years past the end of Malefor's reign. And Spyro's son, Ignitus, is only a short time away from achieving the status of an Adult Dragon. He longs for adventure and excitement, like his Father had at his age. But when young dragons start going missing. He gets sucked into an adventure more exhilarating and more terrifying than he thought.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all, and welcome to my first Fanfiction Story! Thank you so much for checking it out, I appreciate it SO MUCH! I would especially like to thank DragonMaster000, The Wandering King, 4Dragons, Spartan-029, Riverstyxx, and Airchi for the inspiration to take a task like this on. Check out all their awesome stories!**

 **If you feel compelled, I ask that you would give any constructive criticism you can, it is very encouraging even if the review is completely criticizing because it still means someone cared enough to write something. I would like special thanks sent to DragonMaster000 for his willingness to let me borrow his Dragon game of Thunderball! Now here is…**

 **Ugh- dangit! I almost forgot the disclaimer:**

 **I do not own the Spyro the dragon franchise blah-blah-blah or have any affiliation with whoever does, blah-blah legal stuff, I only own my characters and my original plot.**

 **Ok, now that's over with: Here is (for reals now…)**

* * *

 **The Next Generation**

 **Chapter 1**

 _I must say I am very proud of how Spyro and Cynder have raised my namesake. As The Chronicler of this new age, it is my job to archive the lives of every dragon. And I was very honored that after Spyro and Cynder fell in love and became lifemates after the death of the tyrannical Malefor, they would name their son after me.  
Spyro first fulfilled the prophesy, and then ruined the sequence that says a purple dragon could only be born once every ten generations, for he is the only purple dragon who has produced offspring. They raised their son very well, even though neither of them knew their natural parents.  
He is a fine young dragon who has no sense of entitlement, no special privileges, but with extra responsibility expected of him. And through that, he has built up a wonderful sense of chivalry, adventure, and bravery. He is not perfect by a long shot, but he sticks to his core values, just like his father all those years ago. His life is about to take an interesting turn and I would like to tell you his story.  
Now where did I put his Book? Ah there it is, - and I think I should start, Hmm, right here. Now this is where it all begins…_

xXXx

* * *

"Ignitus? Are you paying attention?" Only experience and practice saved the purple and dark crimson dragon from jolting up from his sleep.

"Oh! Uh, yes Master Cyril!" he lied to the elderly guardian. "Yes I was, I just read ahead in the textbook a little and I lost my place."

Cyril nodded, "Hmph, well then now, where was I? Ah yes, as I was saying the political climate of that era was-"

Ignitus mentally chuckled as Cyril droned on. " _Silly old dragon_ " He thought.

He looked across the sandstone room right where he knew his best friend, adopted brother, and Earth dragon Bralor was sitting and saw him trying to be politely alert, but that sincerely honest attempt was ruined when his eyelids drooped and he failed to contain a gargantuan yawn, which was mimicked by many other students across the room.

This time he quietly chuckled aloud. Cyril was finishing up his speech about the great Ice dragon Borealis and his role in negotiating a peace with the ancient Wolf tribes of the far north many centuries ago, when the Warfang Academy bell tower tolled out the end of the day's classes.

With a relieved sigh Ignitus got up off his haunches, packed up his satchel to sling it over his wing, and gave a farewell wave to Cyril as he headed out the large wooden door from the classroom.

As he walked down the hall with the many other multicolored students and Bralor beside him, he did not miss how most of the dragonesses gazes would dart to his dark but shining purple scales.

The flowing silvery designs on his shoulders made his frame look wider than it actually is, and wings with red-membranes that were quite large for his age hinted at the natural airborne talent he also inherited from his mother. He inherited most of his secondary colors, his green eyes, and his sharp bladed tail-tip from Her, but his frame and other physical attributes he had his Father to thank, including his strong crimson chest-scale plates, fin-like spine spikes, and silver horns that were almost identical in shape to Spyro's except for a gentler forward angle and a smoother texture.

Bralor was different, because of the circumstances of his adoption, Ignitus didn't know much about Bralor's heritage. But one thing was obvious, his parents must have both been large and powerful earth dragons, for he grew large, massively muscular, and physically mature much faster than his peers, including Ignitus, with huge amount of raw elemental power and a voice like muffled thunder to match.

His scales are a deep green, with light tan wing membranes and chest scales. He has heavy dark brown back-spikes and thick, intimidating horns that curl around his skull to point forward along his large jaw. His tail tip is like a blacksmiths hammer with short and stout spikes on one side and smooth on the other, with dark brown rock-like plating protecting his shoulders and hips. As a result of his amazingly fast growth and bulky frame he was the largest and strongest dragon in the Academy, but in spite of that he learned how to be gentle with others and appreciate the frailness of things. Bralor is stoic but not gruff, polite and reserved, but stubborn as a granite boulder with three quarters of it's mass underground. And also has a simple, wise, and absolutely incorruptible ethical stance that Ignitus knew had kept him out of trouble more than once.

Bralor glanced at Ignitus as he confidently smiled to the other dragons going down the hall, and as they walked through the big Academy double doors he rumbled in his deep voice, "You were lucky this time Ignitus. If Cyril's eyes were better he would have noticed your purple face drooling."

Ignitus laughed as they walked out to the Front Grounds, "Yup, I know it. All these years and it still astounds me how Master Cyril can put a group of dragons to sleep, even if he's talking about an old war or battle."

Bralor stayed silent but Ignitus saw him slowly nod.

By now the Front Ground had long shadows cast across it's lawn by the large fir trees in the Academy Grounds as the sun lowered its golden light down toward the west. The Warfang Academy's stones almost glowed behind Ignitus and Bralor as they and the other students dispersed across the grounds to take off from the side of the hill overlooking Warfang and head home for the day.

"Let's go drop our stuff off at home before we go meet the others" said Ignitus as they reached a clear area to take off, once again Bralor simply nodded and spread his massive wings.

Ignitus nimbly leaped into the air with a controlled gust of Wind and a smooth acrobatic twirl, he looked back to see Bralor taking a powerful running start to get his heavily muscled frame airborne.

"C'mon big guy! We have an appointment to keep!"

Bralor grunted and thumped Ignitus on the shoulder with his wing as he flapped by, headed towards their home. "Hehehe- OW! Hey!"

xXXx

* * *

"Hi Mom, we're back!" Ignitus announced as they landed on the balcony and headed into the cozy guest-room. As proper, the Saviors of the Realms had a beautiful house, with a great view of Warfang out the balcony.

A tall and beautiful black Dragoness came out of the side room through a thin curtain of shimmering blue satin and smiled, "Welcome back my little ones."

Ignitus teasingly pretended to cringe as Cynder used the motherly pet-name, Bralor just smiled slightly as his adoptive mom included him in it, even though he was anything but little.

Ignitus didn't know it, but his mother looked a lot like how she did when she was under the dark magic Malefor imposed on her form so many years ago.  
Her primary scales still shone a midnight black. The exotic designs on her forehead, shoulders, and hips are a shimmering silver. And her wing membranes and chest-scales have a deep red tint.  
The only differences were that her features are less angular and harsh, and her curves are more defined, partly thanks to having a child. Cynder still has the supple and lithe grace that showed whenever she moved, as if she could explode into lightning-fast movement at any given moment. And Her tall crown of silvery-white horns and dangerous tail-blade gave a regal aspect to her appearance that she definitely knew how to employ when she wanted to. But was always softened by the kind of love and understanding only a mother can have.

"I assume you two are headed right back out?" Cynder asked as they dropped their bags off in their separate rooms.

Bralor grunted in affirmative and Ignitus explained, "Yeah, we're meeting Ike, Kayla, and Teslie in the Market district to get some dinner, then we're pooling our money together to watch the Thunderball Championship!"

Cynder nodded, "Well your father is coming home late tonight too, just remember to be home in time to get some sleep, and-" she mock glares at him and growls-" I command you to have lots of fun."

Ignitus cracked a large grin as he hugged his mother on the way back to the balcony. "Yes Mom, I guess I'll try." Cynder laughed at his sarcastic exasperation and hugs Bralor before she shoos them both off with a wave of her wing. "Now get out of here you rascals! And don't come back if you haven't had fun!"

They leaped off the balcony and headed toward the center of the city that was now glowing with torches in the growing twilight and Bralor boomed back "Yes Ma'am!"

xXXx

* * *

As they glided down into the Market district the warm smells of cooking meats wafted around them, the streets were packed with Thunderball fans, and the stores around them were taking full advantage of the occasion. Though as hungry as they were, they needed to meet their friends at the north fountain before they ate.

Ignitus soon spotted the fountain in the glow of torches, he angled toward it and saw a pale yellow and gray figure waving at them. "Hey Bralor, Teslie is already here!"

Teslie is actually Volteer's Great-niece and is an electricity dragon like him. She is small for her age, with her zig-zag horns only coming up to the chin of most of her peers, but her size hid a sometimes playful and mostly scary temper that could pop up in an instant. Her sunset-pink eyes seemed to observe and analyze everything. She has a two-pronged tail end that let electricity arc between them at random intervals. Her wing membranes, horns, chest-scales, and back-spikes are a light gray, but the rest of her is a pale but pretty shade of yellow that is only a little lighter than her Great-uncles scales. She also inherited Volteer's love for knowledge and books, but fortunately she did not inherit her Great-uncles incessant need to talk.

Teslie's petite form trotted towards them as they landed, her feminine countenance expressing mild rage and electricity sparked threateningly across her gray wings.

"IGNITUS!" She barked. Ignitus sent a confused look in Bralor's direction but only got a shrug in reply.

"You told me to be here TWO HOURS before twilight! So here I waited for everyone to come, only to find out from a very kind passerby that the Championship wasn't until an hour AFTER twilight!"

"But Tesl-." Ignitus sputtered,

"NO! You'd better run, 'cause if catch you: you're, gonna, PAY!"

Ignitus yelped as she shot a yellow bolt of energy in his direction, and she started chasing him around the Fountain.

"But Teslie, hold on a sec and let- OW!" Bralor watched with an amused smile as his half-brother ran away from the enraged little dragoness, using his little control over Dragon Time to evade her.

Ignitus and Teslie both knew he wouldn't get seriously injured. But that certainly didn't make it less fun to watch.

Bralor turned his head away from the amusing spectacle as the he sensed the vibrations through the cobblestone of two dragons approaching him and turned to see the siblings Ike and Kayla walk up to his side.

Kayla had a bemused expression on her face. "What did the Purple Lump do this time?" she asked.

"There was a miscommunication" Bralor answered her shortly.

"About what?"

"Timing"

"Oh... I see." Comprehension dawned on her and Ignitus yelped again. "Well, we're all here now, so I'll go break it up" Kayla said.

Ignitus leaped over a cart, activated his control over dragon time and dashed to the right in an effort to escape, then he released his power only to have his world slow down a different way as he saw the beautiful and full-figured light blue dragoness named Kayla make her way over. The torchlight sparkled in her aqua green eyes, reflected over her curled white horns, down a smooth jawline that betrayed an amused smirk, across her attractive ivory chest scales, down her folded wings, around curved hips, and ending at a sharp icicle shaped tail. But the captivating image was shattered when he suddenly tripped over his paws and fell hard.

Stars flashed across his eyes when his jaw crashed into the cobbled ground and he suddenly found his wings trapped beneath the sparking paws of Teslie. She gripped one of his silvery horns in a paw as she triumphantly stood on his wings, and glanced up to see Kayla standing in front of the uncomfortably prone Ignitus.

"Kayla!" she said happily, stepping off of Ignitus to hug her friend, then quickly hopping back as he tried to get up with a groan. "What's this about Teslie?" Kayla asked.

Ignitus tried to explain, "I just- mmphf!"

His indignant explanation was cut off by Kayla holding his snout to the ground with a forepaw.

Ike nudged Bralor as Teslie and Kayla talked, "Hehehe, what I wouldn't give to have two dragonesses all over me like that eh?"

Bralor just rolled his eyes at his friend's inappropriate humor. Ike has always been kind of a spaz, and his quirky sense of humor didn't help. Many others in the Academy were watchful for his slim teal and off-white figure, since wherever he went: some kind of prank followed. Ike was the kind of dragon who loved to make others smile. Sometimes it's at the harmless cost of someone who he knew wouldn't mind or would go along with it, and other times at his own expense.

Ike is a little taller than his older sister and Ignitus as well, but is more wiry and doesn't have as much muscle as Ignitus, though he makes up for it with a quickness of movement that could be described as twitchy. His three off-white horns splay slightly outwards and curl back above his head. And he has a straight white scar in his right wing-membrane from when he accidentally impaled it on a Mane'athorn bush many years ago.

Ike leaned in closer to Bralor and whispered, "It was me who suggested to Ignitus that we needed to meet at two hours before twilight because I knew that he'd tell Teslie, then later I told him that I had found out the Championship started after twilight instead and also told him that I had let Teslie know as well."

Ike snickered, "Simple, and exactly as planned!"

His face fell comically when he saw Kayla and Teslie glaring at him after they had figured it out. "Except for the part where they realize it was me." He sighed.

Bralor looked at him with a raised brow and rumbled, "Indeed."

Ignitus let the girls help him up of the cobbled road as he brushed off his fit and lithe purple frame, he graciously accepted their apology's, then it was his turn to snicker as Ike was taken down by his own sister and the fiery little lightning dragoness.

Ignitus joined Bralor at the side of the fountain with Kayla and Teslie as Ike got up groaning and sporting a small electrical burn on his side. "Alright guys, Bralor is hungry so let's go grab something on our way to the Championship."

Bralor looked at Ignitus with his brow raised, "How did you know I was hungry?"

"Cause you're always hungry Big Guy." The happy group of young dragons left the fountain and went to eat.

xXXx

* * *

With full bellies and exited spirits the five young dragons left the food court, and headed straight for the enormous Warfang Thunderball Arena. The grey stone structure was brilliantly lit up with massive torches, magical light sources, and was aloud with hundreds of voices eagerly waiting for the match to begin.

"Let's go pay for our seats guys!" Ike called over the crowd.

With Bralor's buff frame carving a path through the throng of Dragons, Moles, a few Cheetahs, and various other creatures, they had little trouble reaching one of the many entrances.

They handed their gems to the ticket master and headed into the huge oval structure, the arena was an incredible and brilliantly designed building were the stands are built to accommodate almost every creature around. Smaller creatures could sit on the stands, and since dragons are such bigger creatures- there are hollowed catacombs underneath the stands where they can comfortably sit and poke their heads and necks through and still see the match without blocking the view of smaller creatures.

Ignitus subtly maneuvered himself around his friends so that he could sit next to Kayla. She leaned over to him and yelled over the noise of the crowd: "Ignitus, It's been a long time since I've seen a Thunderball match, I'm so exited!"

He nodded as she pointed with her snout at the announcer, a mole with a large megaphone who was barely visible on the 2,000 foot long grass field built for adult dragons to run on. He walked out onto the middle of the field and called the audience to silence.

After a dramatic pause, his magically magnified voice echoed around the stadium as he yelled: "It's time for THUNDERBALL!"

xXXx

* * *

 **So what'd ya think? I will have the action of Thunderball in chapter 2. I would like some specific questions answered if you would be so kind: Are the characters likable and personable? Did you get a solid mental picture of the characters physical attributes? Are the situations and actions throughout the chapter understandable? Is there anything I need to change or fix to make it more fun or easier to read? Did I pace it well?**

 **I will respond to all non-anonymous reviewers I can. See y'all in the next chapter!**


	2. Chapter 2: Thunderball!

**Hey there! I'm back with chapter 2 of The Next Generation! I apologize for the extremely long time between chapters, my computer got a** _ **really**_ **nasty piece of malware that took forever to get rid of completely, ugh, that was a nightmare. There are tons of other legit reasons and excuses but I'm not gonna bother anyone with that.**

 **I want to send a huge thank you to all who reviewed, commented, and PM'd me with advice. Including Usurper of Souls, Theblooplop, and one anonymous reviewer. But especially DragonMaster000, 4Dragons, and The Wandering King, you guys are totally awesome, thank you all for your support and advice! And a huge thank you to Verdauga, 4Dragons, and Kommo-o , my first followers!**

 **Now I know you just want to get reading, so here you go!**

* * *

 **The Next Generation**

 **Chapter 2**  
 **Thunderball!**

* * *

"At a basic level, all that I am doing is manipulating the flow of the magical energy that red gems trap and accumulate from the environment. This allows me to heal small wounds much faster, and reduce the severity of larger injuries. It requires little actual effort unless you try to force the energy's path, but it takes a long time, lots of focus, and deep concentration to learn how to detect and recognize where it is traveling around you, then redirect and guide it into the injury."

Grand Master Guardian Spyro watched the jaws of his Advanced Healers class drop as he showed them this incredible healing technique. Spyro's massive paw hovered over the forearm of a little red dragoness who bruised and scraped her scales when she crashed during flying practice, but in a few seconds the discoloration and scratch marks disappeared and were replaced by vibrantly red healthy scales.

Spyro has been fully grown for a while now and is still completely in his prime. He is not quite as wide or bulky as old Terrador, but has a combination of smooth agility born from years of practicing the techniques of Combat-Arts, and the raw power that comes from hard-used and dense muscle mass.  
His royal purple scales, golden horns, chest-scales, and dark orange wing-membranes made him recognizable anywhere as the Grand Master Guardian and the Restorer of the World.  
His physique, the handsome jaw-frills gained at the peak of physical maturity, an aura of uninterrupted composure and control, and an expression of peaceful joy gave Spyro a dangerously formidable but friendly and gentle presence in any room he was in.

The little red dragoness smiled up at him in awe as Spyro finished, and he smiled kindly and bowed his head down as he thanked her. "Thank you for being my demonstration Ashley."

She nodded and kneaded her paws on the floor as she timidly thanked him. "Your wel- I mean, th- thank you Grand M- Master Guardian."

"You are very welcome Ashley, but just call me Spyro. Now wait by the door for a second and I'll walk you down to the Pick-up grounds."

She nodded once again and Spyro turned to the class of adult dragon healers. "This technique is especially useful if there is a lack of equipment, or of red gems available to you during an emergency. Come back next week and I will teach you this as well as I can. You're dismissed."

As the group of healers filed out the dragon-size wooden door, Spyro heard the Academy bell tower toll and realized that Ignitus and Bralor would be leaving Cyril's class right now. He then turned to Ashley and waved his wing to guide her out of the classroom, down the stone stairs and out the main doors to where the little ones got picked up by their parents on the Academy front grounds.

Spyro felt like little Ashley could use some encouragement after her flying accident, so before he left her with her surprised and astonished parents, he knelt down to see her at her eye level.

"Hey Ashley, don't worry about crashing at flying practice today, would you like to know why?" She nodded in curiosity.

"I didn't learn to fly until I was two years older than you are." Her eyes widened in disbelief as Spyro continued.

"And on my first landing, I accidentally buried my head in a snow drift." She scrunched up her eyes and rolled on the ground with a happy fit of giggles as she imagined the legendary Restorer of the World plowing headfirst into snow.

Spyro grinned as he stood back up and waved his wing to greet her parents. "Sorry for keeping your daughter late."

Her father, a fire dragon like his daughter spoke up with a smile. "It's quite alright Grand Master Guardian, I'm sure she was completely safe with you. And I'm also sure she will tell us _all_ about it."

Spyro nodded as they bid each other farewell and watched Ashley bounce away, animatedly telling her parents about the day's special adventures.

He turned to the west to watch the dazzling orange and bronze rays of the sunset contrast the dark shadows highlighting the curves and ripples of the clouds. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath through his nostrils to smell the wood of the surrounding fir trees, felt the cool of the wind and the warmth of the sun battle across his face, and felt the movement of the life around him through the earth. Then he listened to the distant chatter of conversation from the other students leaving the grounds, and through the crowd of young dragons leaving their classes he happened to hear Ignitus' voice.

Spyro opened his eyes and turned to the right to see Ignitus take of into the air with Bralor close behind. He smiled as he heard Ignitus' laughter carry over the vibrantly dark green lawn and then an audible thump as Bralor playfully hit him in the shoulder. Spyro proudly watched his sons fly toward home and thought about how much they've grown. Then with a startled look, he suddenly realized that Ignitus is now just about the same age as when he and Cynder defeated Malefor, right before a young dragon reaches the status of an adult. Spyro grimaced and shook his head when that thought suddenly made him feel just a little old.

Spyro was suddenly broken out of his memories and thoughts as he felt his old friend and mentor Terrador get his attention through very faint sequenced tremors through the ground. "By the Ancestors, the Counsel of Cities!" Spyro mentally scolded himself for his distracted reminiscing as he activated his power over Dragon Time. And to any observer, it would have seemed like he simply vanished.

xXXx

* * *

"Its time for THUNDERBALL!"

A happily thunderous ruckus erupted from the stands and rolled around the oval stadium in a roar that could almost be heard over all of Warfang. And Ignitus, Ike, Kayla, and Teslie all roared along with them while Bralor simply smiled at his friends enthusiasm.

The mole with the large megaphone called for silence and dramatically addressed the crowd, his voice magically magnified to echo over the whole stadium.

"Hello Thunderball fans! Here we are, at Warfang's mighty Arena. And you are about to see the first championship match of this new age!" Once again the crowd exclaimed in jubilant excitement, and the mole continued.

"Thunderball may have been pushed aside during the war. And It may have taken time to restart after rebuilding. But now, after many years of dedication and training, two teams of five dragons have rose through the ranks, by battling team after team, in city after city, to lay claim to the title of Champions!"

The mole waited until the clamor died down and then gestured with a wave of his paw. "Now for Introductions. First, please welcome our guests from the coastal city of Greentide… Team Ripcurrent!"

The crowd cheered as two ice dragons, an electricity dragon, a fire dragon, and a wind dragon walked in a line out of the left end of the arena, each wearing their distinctive green cloth bands around their horns. They proudly stood tall and shoulder to shoulder in front of their pedestal and bowed deeply.

The mole then gestured to the other end of the field. "And for their opponents, from right here in Warfang… The Warfang Warriors!" Another cheer rang throughout the stadium as an uncommonly large fire dragon, two heavy looking earth dragons, an ice dragon, and an electricity dragon, all wearing red and grey cloth bands on their horns, ran out of the right end of the arena and formed a loosely concave semicircle before their pedestal and grinned as they also bowed to the crowd.

"Cyrus of Greentide and Bastion of Warfang… As team captains, please come forward."

A tall, lean, and tough looking royal blue Ice dragon from with a rough gash in his left horn strode forward from the Greentide end, acknowledged the small and stout announcer with a nod and briefly said. "I am Cyrus."

At the same time, the large fire dragon with dark bronze chest scales and handsome jaw frills from the other team happily and unceremoniously sprang forward, waved candidly at the crowd with his orange wing and charismaticly declared "Bastion here!"

As the stands once again exploded with noise, Ignitus called over to his friends through the almost deafening racket. "Any bets on who's going to win guys?"

"Oh, Ripcurrent all the way dude! They were my home team before we moved to Warfang!" Ike immediately responded.

"What about you Kayla?", Ignitus asked.

"I don't really know. I like the disposition of the Warriors better, but Ripcurrent was also me and my brother's home team for a while. Teslie, what do you think?"

"I think that the Warriors' captain is kinda' cute." They all groaned and rolled their eyes.

"How 'bout you Bralor?", Ike yelled. "Do you have a preference?"

Bralor shrugged and unconcernedly shook his head.

Ignitus grinned and shouted back to Ike. "I'm rooting for the Warriors, I've seen a couple of their other games and they have a very strong defense. Their offense is a little slow but it's hard to stop them once they have momentum."

Ike smirked and bumped paws with Ignitus. "You've got a bet Ignitus. How 'bout the loser buys us all a glass of Firemint Fruit juice?"

"Sounds good to me, you're on!"

He stopped as the crowd quieted and the mole rose up from the field on a cleverly disguised elevator. Then the ground shifted and stone walls rose up, mirrored on both sides of the turf in the field, creating hindrances, blind spots, and strategically placed choke points, giving both sides the same advantages and disadvantages. Ignitus and his friends all gasped along with the rest of the crowd as they analyzed the tactically challenging orientation of the walls and wondered how the teams will maneuver around them and their opponents in the massive oval arena.

The Mole addressed the team captains and the crowd, "You all know the rules: No flying, no biting, clawing, stabbing, prolonged grappling, or direct elemental harm of any kind, you lose a point for any fouls. You score a point when you capture the opposing team's sphere and bring it back to your side, you must charge the sphere with your element before you handle it or it will vanish, when a ball vanishes it is gone for the rest of the round, and the whichever team has the most points by the end time or by fifteen rounds wins."

The mole then directed the audiences' gaze to an hour-glass large enough for the entire stadium to easily see.

"Now, Ladies and Gentlefolks of all species, Ripcurrents, Warriors, scorekeepers, and referees, I have one last question for you… Are you ready?"

As the entire Stadium shook with roars of affirmation, both teams rushed to their positions. And the announcer nodded to the timekeeper, a green dragon who struggled to flip the hour-glass that was bigger than he was. The dragon then pivoted and used his tail to smack a heavy bronze gong that reverberated with a deep and rich 'BOOM'. And the game was on!

The Warriors' captain Bastion immediately went on a risky offensive and launched several firebombs into key intersections that instantly exploded with a 'WHOOF' as they each made contact to the turf, making a cloudy screen of thick gray smoke. He ran through the smoke flanked by his two earth dragons who swiftly escorted him through the barriers and into the other side of the playing field.

Captain Cyrus and his comrades sprinted to intercept them as the Ripcurrent's electricity dragon and their wind dragon ran through the barricades and emerged on the other side to face the Warriors defense.

The Warriors Ice dragon reacted quickly by breathing a slick sheet of ice and the wind dragon's feet slipped out from under him, but the other ice dragon nimbly leaped over the patch of ice and shot an ice spear at the Warriors' ball and hit it dead on, turning it from a pale white to a deep blue shade.

As he landed, the Warrior's electricity dragon leaped to tackle him down but was forcefully redirected by a gust of wind from the fallen wind dragon allowing his teammate to rush over, grab the ball, and trap it in his right wing.

Ignitus heard Ike cheer along with the Ripcurrent fans as the their ice dragon snagged the ball and took off running towards his team's side, and he watched in anticipation as the Warrior's electricity dragon roared in defiance, supercharged his muscles with his element and sprinted for the ball-carrier in a bright yellow blur!

The Ice dragon barely saw it coming and managed to juke fast enough to avoid a collision, but not before the Warrior's electricity dragon struck the ball out of his wing with a well timed tail-swipe, the ball arced through the air, landed on the grass and vanished with a puff of blue mist.

After a collective groan from Ripcurrent supporters, Ignitus turned his attention to the other side of the arena where Captain Bastion and his earth dragon team were fiercely fighting against Captain Cyrus and his fire and ice dragon teammates for control of Ripcurrent's ball.

The Warriors had managed to set up a brilliant system where the earth dragons would throw the green glowing ball to each other in a zig-zag pattern toward their side while Bastion distracted and hindered either Cyrus or his comrades.

Then Ripcurrent's defenders suddenly lost track of Bastion only to find the earth-infused ball flying towards the center of the field with Bastion on the receiving end. And in one smooth movement Bastion leaped into the air, flashed a quick breath of fire to turn the ball into a bright red, caught it against his bronze chest, flipped backwards, landed on three legs and hopped through the barricades to triumphantly cross the mid-line.

As the ball disappeared into red mist from Bastions paw, the crowd exploded in a combination of ecstatic victory and disappointment as both teams ran back to their respective sides to catch their breath before the next round started.

The dragon timekeeper pushed over the massive hourglass so it laid horizontally and the sand stopped flowing, then the balls soon reappeared back at their original pale white glow on their pedestals at opposite ends of the arena.

After a couple minutes rest the Warrior's captain Bastion suddenly flared both of his orange wings to announce that his team was ready for the next round. And after a couple more seconds of discussion on Ripcurrent's side, the royal blue figure of Cyrus stepped forward and raised his wings as well.

The hour-glass tipped, the gong was hit, and the teams clashed!

For the next hour the game rolled back and forth in fast-paced and brutal battle for supremacy. Round after round was hard fought and pushed both teams to the limit of their guile, stamina, and reflexes. Sometimes both teams would score, and sometimes neither team would manage to capture the orb. Points were earned and penalties were obtained on both sides, and by the fourteenth round, the Warriors and the Ripcurrents were tied at ten points.

As the Greentide Ripcurrents and the Warfang Warriors recovered and regrouped from their last intense confrontation, the small announcer took up the megaphone.

"Ladies and gentle-creatures; this is it. The Fifteenth round will soon begin and the teams are tied! There will be a five minute recuperation and extra planning time given to each team, because this last round is special. Neither team's orb can vanish, the barricades will be taken down, and the first orb captured wins!"

With his words echoing around the Stadium, the tension and anticipation in the crowd almost visibly heightened as they watched both teams huddle and discuss their plan for the high-stakes last round.

As the barricades sunk back onto the field, each team broke their huddle and took their positions, Bastion and Cyrus both flared their wings. The announcer nodded. And the Gong sounded its rich resonance once again!

Cyrus made the first move and rushed forward with his electricity and ice dragon teammates right on his heels. A fearsome growl ripped from their throats as they sprinted toward the Warrior's side and immediately split into a trident formation with Cyrus and Ripcurrent's other ice dragon flanking the electricity dragon on each side. Moving swiftly to counteract the ferocious retaliation, the Warriors earth dragons and the electricity dragon moved to intercept them while Bastion and his blue comrade ran to make their own attack.

As soon as Cyrus and his comrades entered the Warriors side of the turf they tightened their trident formation and charged straight toward the defending Warriors with glares of determination on their faces. Then with precision timing, as the large earth dragons rumbled over Ripcurrent's strike team, the two ice dragons dropped and power-slid under the bellies of the Warriors earth dragons and froze their paws to the turf. After an impressed "Ooh!" from the crowd, they smoothly resumed their trident formation and kept running for the orb as the Warrior's electricity dragon frantically tried to hold them off by himself and the earth dragons tried to break free.

Cyrus pounced on the the lone Warrior and knocked him away as the Ripcurrent's other ice dragon shot a shard of ice at the Warrior's orb, grabbed the now deep blue sphere with his wing in same movement, and pivoted to run back when suddenly the earth dragons broke themselves out of the entrapping ice with powerful shots of their element. They turned to face the invading team and immediately cut them off from the mid-line.

The Ripcurrent's ice dragon shared a nod with Cyrus and bolted along the outside edge of the arena with his electric teammate covering him on the inside. As both earth dragons headed in their direction to intercept them, Captain Cyrus disengaged from the Warrior's electricity dragon and sprinted to help with the other dragon right on his tail.

On the other side, Bastion and his blue comrade were struggling against Ripcurrents Fire and Wind defenders. Bastion managed to overpower the other fire dragon and grab the orb after turning it bright red with a quick burst of flame, but it was struck out of his wing by the nimble wind dragon. But instead of vanishing, it simply rolled across the turf only to be snagged by Ripcurrents fire dragon, the Warriors Ice dragon immediately rushed after him while Bastion was hindered by powerful gusts of air from his opponent.

Then with a stunning display of either accuracy or luck, the Warriors Ice dragon fired a dull ice spear at the retreating fire dragon, miraculously hitting the orb in the fire dragons wing, turning it to a deep shade of blue. The look of astonished surprise flashed across the fire dragons face a second before the orb blasted itself out of his grasp. Bastion sprinted toward where it was going to land, breathed a tongue of flame to turn it red, and jumped to catch it! But as he leaped, the sphere suddenly turned silver and changed direction midair to land in the waiting wing of the Ripcurrent's wind dragon.

It was only a matter of time before one of the teams managed to capture the others sphere and both teams knew it. And on the Warriors side, Ripcurrent's strike team was in trouble. Their ice dragon had the Warriors sphere and was skirting the outside edge with his electric comrade covering him, but both of the Warriors large earth dragons were thundering towards them, and Cyrus was only just coming to help.

As the earth dragons barreled towards the two Ripcurrent intruders, They caused a wall of stone to suddenly erupt in front of the sphere carrier and his escort, effectively boxing them in and funneling them into a trap! They had to slide to a halt and turn right into the oncoming Warriors. Then Cyrus dashed in and explosively tackled one of the earth dragons leaving a small opening. Ripcurrents electric dragon took a daring risk and dashed out into the middle of the field and looked up to notice a cloud of smoke rising from the other side of the arena, with Bastion leaping out of it carrying the glowing red orb once again.

At the sight of Bastion starting to sprint toward the mid-line the entire stadium erupted with noise. But from down on the field, a clear and desperate voice cut through the clamor saying: "Throw it Cyrus! Throw the ball! By the Light of the Ancestors THROW IT!"

Cyrus somehow ripped himself from the brawl on the Warriors side and launched the glowing blue sphere in an amazing arch, the Ripcurrent's electricity dragon let his element arc over and through his body to supercharge his sprint to catch it.

Bastion let out a powerful roar as he pushed his legs to the limit of their speed. Ripcurrent's last hope leaped into the air, twisted over and pulsed his yellow energy as Bastion dived with the ball outstretched from his paws. The electricity dragon caught the now bright yellow orb against his chest, and slammed into the turf across the line just before Bastion hit the grass and slid to a stop.

With the deafening roar of thousands exploding into the night, even the announcer's call of Ripcurrents victory was drowned in the tidal wave of sound.

* * *

 **Yes! Finally! This took me** _ **way**_ **too long. Please let me know what you think, especially about my first attempt at a combat scene.** _ **Please?**_


	3. Chapter 3: Disappointing News

**Oh Golly. It's been quite a while hasn't it? The holiday season, the new year, and having to get a new computer totally threw me off of writing for a while. I hope It doesn't show too much. Fortunately I got back on track when another author posted a new chapter that re-inspired me to keep going. Thank You 4Dragons!**

* * *

 **The Next Generation**

 **Chapter 3**  
 **Disappointing News**

* * *

 _Far from_ _Warfang and beyond the seas of the south, piercing yellow eyes peered out from the edge of the tree-line, and the full moon couldn't reflect off the matte black fur of the watcher. A city was being watched, the lights reaching his eyes, and even from the trees of the jungle the smells and sounds of machinery reached the ears of the watcher, as well as a bloodthirsty sounding roar from a bright stadium._

 _But it was the cries of the oppressed that made his fur curl, hackles rise, and his blood boil, the watcher's mind worked furiously as he tried to think of any way to free them all. But there was no way, not yet. So the watcher slinked away, invisible in the shadows, to watch, wait, and think._

 _His ultimate goal; is justice._

* * *

xXXx

Ignitus yawned, grinned sleepily, and rolled over in his blue sheets. He had that dream again.

He was standing on the top of a grassy hill looking down on a burning city as the first rays of dawn came up behind him. The feeling rather than the sight of hundreds of creatures standing at his back, he felt armor over his scales, and had an inexplicably exhilarating feeling of victory.

He wished it would move on from there, he wanted to know what he had done to feel like a such a conqueror.

Unfortunately, the feeling faded as he slowly woke up, his eyes peeked open to take in the sight of his room in the late morning light hampered by his thin grey curtains. The walls were made of smooth oak wood, and the soft tan carpet was soothing on the pads of his paws. His wall of trophies was still hanging there, with the cutlass-tusked skull of a young blade-boar he managed to kill staring fiercely at the opposite wall. Shelves of sentimental trinkets obtained from several family trips adorned the space beside his window, including half of a shattered buckler Ignitus found buried in The Tall Plains.

Even Singe, Ignitus' pet Magmabeetle still lounged in it's little bowl of lava inside the glass tank on top of a bookshelf.

"Morn'in Singe." Ignitus drowsily slurred. The paw sized orange spotted bug raised one antenna and buzzed it's wings in reply.

Ignitus rolled off of the floor cushion in the corner of his room to stretch his spine as he released another long yawn that ended in a contented sigh.

After feeding Singe his Fahrenmoss, Ignitus pushed open the wood door that separated his room with the hallway and walked past the rumbling snores from Bralor's room. As he approached the entrance to the Dining Room, he smiled as he started to smell something roasting for breakfast. But he suddenly stopped as he heard his Mom and Dad having a whispered conversation in the kitchen. He stood there in the dark of the hall for a couple seconds, not quite able to hear them, and wondered if he wanted to eavesdrop. Cynder abruptly put an end to his indecision.

"Ignitus? Is that you? You can come on out, we're gonna tell you about it anyway."

Ignitus mentally slapped himself for even thinking that he could eavesdrop on two of the most skilled Wind users that he knew of as he walked out of the hall and turned into the kitchen.

His parents were both standing side by side with Cynder leaning into Spyro's solid form, their tails loosely coiled together, and her wing draped over his back as they monitored the two sheep roasting on the open stove.  
Spyro and Cynder were both now around forty-two season-cycles old, and although that is definitely not old at all in terms of a dragon's lifespan, they both have seen and been in more combat than most would see in an entire lifetime. The amount of scars that marred their scales was proof of that. They could even say which scars were obtained in the same battles together.

They both looked up as Ignitus entered. "Your father and I were just talking about yours and Bralor's near future." Cynder said with a smile.

"Speaking of Bralor." Spyro said with a roll of his eyes and a grin. "Would you go and wake him up?"

Wondering what his mother meant, Ignitus nodded and obediently headed back down the hall to be greeted by Bralor's softly thundering snores. He pushed the door open to see his adopted brother haphazardly sprawled across his sheets with the cushions pushed off in every direction.

Bralor's room was a little more spacious than Ignitus' was, even though he did not keep his room nearly as neat. The floor was covered with an assortment of different weapons and books, some of the books even lay open with their pages on the carpet. Ignitus happened to read the cover of one that he remembered giving to Bralor for his birthday two season-cycles ago. The one called 'Old Techniques of Famous Earth-movers.' Ignitus carefully stepped over a spiked set of dark brown forearm armor on the floor and proceeded to wake Bralor up with a couple shoves to his solid form.

"Bralor. Hey, Bralor. Mom and Dad want to talk to us for a bit. And breakfast is ready."

Bralor grunted as he cracked an eyelid to glare at Ignitus. Then he nodded and lethargically hefted himself up to follow Ignitus out of the room. Bralor also visibly brightened as he smelled breakfast. They walked into the dining room to see Spyro and Cynder sitting at the table with the heaping plates of roasted sheep to welcome them.

Cynder grinned as she got up to hug her boys. "Good morning sleepy-heads. Since you're up so late you obviously had fun. It's a good thing today is a late school day. Come to the table and have breakfast, and tell us about it."

As Bralor started to enthusiastically wolf down his food, Ignitus relayed the events of the special trip to the Thunderball Championship between bites of his own meal. He talked about the playful prank Ike played on him and Teslie, the exiting match between the Ripcurrents and the Warriors with some of the incredible plays that led to the Ripcurrents victory. The fun and relaxing time simply hanging out and laughing with his friends over deep mugs of Firemint fruit juice. And escorting Ike, Kayla, and Teslie home before heading back themselves.

"Sounds like you had a full night, I'm glad you had fun." Spyro said as he smiled.

"You had a late night too, right Dad? What were you doing?" Ignitus asked.

"The Council of Cities went on last night." Spyro explained, "Leaders of many different cities came from around the realms to share information and discuss problems. Leaders like my very old friend Prowlus, from Avalar. Kane from the Tall plains. And even Sparx the Second, my great-nephew. He's the representative of the Silver River colonies, where I grew up. The other guardians and I are there mostly as mediators and voices of wisdom as they generally discuss things like trade and commerce. But some of the problems that were brought up are why we wanted to talk to you this morning."

Bralor looked up from his plate and rumbled, "So some of these problems affect us?"

Spyro nodded. "Yes. I'm sure you've heard at school that there have been suspected kidnappings and strange disappearances of young dragons going around our entire realms for a while now."

"Yeah, It's a popular conversation topic. But I thought it was just gossip born from rumors. There have actually been kidnappings?" Asked Ignitus.

"We think so. There have been around twenty reported disappearances since spring started this year and four more this summer. All cases were dragons, and a little more than half of the victims were around your age, when you're old enough to be out on your own but still young enough to be less of a threat. Some cases have been adults, and they were mostly traveling alone down by the southern coast.

After a minute, Ignitus slowly exhaled as he figured out what this meant for them. "This means the Trial of Survival is affected, doesn't it?"

Spyro sighed. "Unfortunately, yes. Your mother and I just can't let you both go when we know that there is someone out there." Spyro paused before he continued.

"Someone who can do worse things than kill you."

Even as that thought sunk in, Ignitus was devastatingly disappointed. He wanted to protest and argue, but he wisely kept his mouth shut.

The Trial was the most anticipated time in a young dragons life and is an old tradition that dragons have kept for longer than most knew. Every senior student in the academy would talk about what kind of beast they would track down and how they would kill it. Dragons usually reached the point of their prime physical maturity at around thirty season-cycles of age, but the point of which a dragon is officially recognized as an adult is based upon this tradition.  
Young dragons from eighteen season-cycles and up are given the opportunity to travel out by themselves, and wherever they desired to prove their power, skill, and cunning by bringing back a trophy from a suitably dangerous beast. When they return, the young dragon is granted the status of an adult, with all the rights, respect, and courtesies associated with that position.  
And even though the parents do have the final say in whether they think the time is right or not, it gives the parents a chance to let go, step back, trust in the Ancestors, and allow their child to forge their own path.

Because of the chance that the young dragon could perish before returning, a ceremony is preformed with whomever is the local authority in magic. A temporary bond is formed between the young dragon and an empty Spirit gem that the family keeps. This allows the young dragon to imprint his or her thoughts, memories, and reflections of the trip to be kept in the family record. And when needed; even the last moments of their life could be imprinted into the gem, giving the family closure should any accident occur.

Spyro could clearly see the stark disappointment in Ignitus' face. Bralor simply took a breath and squared his jaw with a resigned expression.

"I'm sorry Ignitus, just remember that this only means the Trial will be postponed for however long it takes for the collaborating cities to apprehend whatever or whoever is doing this. And you probably won't have to watch any of the other students go out for their Trial either. Since after the Council, we apprised the parents of all the senior students about the situation, I'm willing to bet most of the other parents have made the same decision."

Spyro paused, then he exchanged a glance with Cynder and smiled. "In fact, we want you both to know that as soon as this is all over, you will both immediately have the blessing of your mother and I. We think you have both been ready for more than a while now."

Even through his disappointment, Ignitus' face lit up in surprise. Even Bralor raised a surprised eyebrow.

Cynder chuckled at Ignitus' expression as she faced him with a smile. "Think about it Ignitus, you killed that Blade-Boar an entire year ago. Granted, it was a young one and we were with you at the time, but you took it down all by yourself. And that's a fine trophy. Plus, the advantage of more than one element is not one to scoff at, your... 'different' element along with your control of Earth, Wind, and Dragon time are going to be a big help."

Spyro turned to proudly look Bralor in the eyes. "And you, I've seen how well you handle yourself at the Advanced Combat Arts class at the Academy. And I've seen more than enough combat to know that I'm not wrong when I say that most of the other students aren't any terrible challenge for you, huh?

It was more of a statement than a question, and Bralor affirmed his fathers experienced intuition with a small smile and a shrug.

Cynder nodded, "Well since the Advanced Combat Arts classes are today and it's now close to noon, you two should be off to the Academy once you're done eating. You don't want to be late."

Ignitus nodded as he thanked his parents for the encouragement and for keeping them informed. Ignitus and Bralor quickly finished their meal, and they headed back to their rooms to grab the satchels full of books.

After they hugged and said their goodbye's, they leaped of the balcony to soar toward the Academy for their last day before the weekend. Spyro and Cynder walked over to sit on the balcony, Cynder leaned her head on Spyro's broad shoulder and Spyro wrapped a wing around her as they watched their kids slowly shrink into the distance.

"I'm glad we don't have to go work until later." Cynder said with a contented sigh.

"Me too."

Spyro paused before he spoke again. "I'm very proud of them. They've grown so much, and pretty soon they are going to go lead their own life."

"Ugh, don't remind me. I don't feel ready to become empty-nesters."

Spyro nodded and smiled. "The years went fast. It seems like only a short while ago that Ignitus started gliding all by himself, right around the same time we adopted Bralor."

They sat and enjoyed the memory-filled silence of each others company for a while.

With memories of his sons sifting through Spyro's mind, he thought about the day that Bralor came into his life. He remembered how the Warfang Guard patrol sounded the alarm when they discovered a deeply wounded and exhausted young earth dragon hanging on to life outside the city walls. He was only just younger than little Ashley was now and barely spoke at all, the only information that Spyro managed to gently coax out of him was that his name was Bralor, that he had been traveling alone for a very long time, and that he had come from very far away. And even though Spyro and Cynder had just brought Ignitus into the World three season-cycles ago, after the long and fruitless search for Bralor's birth-parents Cynder insisted that they adopt him themselves. Fortunately, Ignitus and Bralor quickly bonded as if they were already brothers.

Soon Cynder spoke up. "What do you think they are going to choose to do after they become adults?"

Spyro sighed, "Well, I'm pretty sure that question has been bothering Ignitus for a while. Bralor I'm not so sure about, he's not as communicative after all."

"I think Bralor is pretty content were he is. He knows his strengths and his weaknesses, he'll will choose a position that will play to that when he's ready. But I think Ignitus has gotten more restless. He gets so exited whenever he has an opportunity to go out with friends. Call it mother's instinct, but maybe he misses adventure? That's one of the reasons why he was looking forward to the Trial so much. You know how much he loved to hear your stories of your younger days. And since he's unsure of what he's going to move on and do, he might be afraid that he can't measure up to you."

Spyro grimaced with determination, "I don't ever want him to feel like that. It's my job as a father to help both of them to be better dragons then I ever will be."

Cynder tightened the coil she had around his tail with her own. "That, my love, is a hard job, because you are the best of dragons out there. But, I know for a fact that you and both our boys will be successful."

A smile broke across Spyro's face at her encouraging words. Then after a while he drew his jaw to the side and narrowed his eyes in thought.

"Uh oh, I know that look. You're thinking about something."

He gave her a bashful grin and nodded. "I think there might be a way to give Ignitus and Bralor some adventure, while keeping them relatively safe. But it all depends on the decisions of a few other dragons."

"Ah, so you're going to go talk to these dragons later?

"Yes, yes I think I will. Not as the Master Guardian, but as fellow parent."

They sat in peaceful silence until Cynder turned her head to look up into Spyro's eyes with a mischievously sly grin. "In the meantime, how 'bout we go back to what we were 'really' talking about before Ignitus got up?"

Spyro raised his brow as he teased her. "Hmm, and what was that again?"

Cynder unraveled herself from his body, twirled her tail and turned to wink as she headed back inside. "Follow me, and I'll tell you."

Spyro gave a deep chuckle, and closed the balcony doors behind him.

* * *

xXXx

Ignitus and Bralor's paws sunk into the grass at the Academy grounds as they landed from their flight. Other students of various ages and colors were flying above them and landing around them while they headed to their respective classes before the noon bell tolled.

As they both entered through the huge oak double-doors into the smooth and warm colored sandstone hallways once again, a stocky and muscular bright green dragoness stepped in next to Bralor to walk alongside them. She had short and wide but sharp horns that curled up and forward, and had a little more natural body armor than most earth dragon females. Bralor politely made room for her as she greeted them both with a warm smile that seemed to be mostly directed toward Bralor.

"G'mornin fellas, how's your day been?"

"Hello Miaora, we've had a pretty good day. Did you hear about how all those kidnappings are true?"

"Yeah, my parents told me this morning, was your Trial postponed as well?"

"Yup, Bralor and I were a little disappointed, but it should all be over soon. The collective effort of all these cities should catch whoever is doing this pretty quick."

"I sure hope so, I've been itching to try my skills on something other than animated dummies and sparring partners. Except for you Bralor, maybe we could spar together again?"

Bralor inclined his head with a tiny smile and replied, "Possibly."

Her grin after she heard that was stuck on her face as they continued down the main hall. Maneuvering around other students, they walked up a couple flights of stairs, turned down a wide hallway and entered the enormous circular Dojo. According to Spyro, this dojo was very similar to the one he trained in when he was younger, this one is just much bigger.

There in the center of the room, a huge white marble statue of a dragon towered over the ground with moving ripples of deep crimson and orange winding around the heroic figure, casting a soft red light into the room. It was Ignitus' namesake, the previous Guardian of Fire, the mentor and father figure to Spyro.  
Next to the majestically massive monument sat Terrador and Fernous; the current Guardian of Fire, along with the rest of the class. This included Teslie, Ike, and Kayla, who all smiled and waved as they saw them come in.

Senior students at the academy got to pick three different classes they wanted to take for the last day of the school week. And Ignitus, Bralor, Kayla, Ike, and Teslie all wanted a class where they could all see each other at once. Fortunately, the girls wanted to learn some extra self-defense, so they all signed up for the Advanced Combat Classes.

Further in the room, Ignitus also noticed a large reddish-brown body with jagged dark gray horns in the crowd of students and grimaced. "Looks like Mikeal decided to come to school today."

The fire dragon Mikeal was only slightly smaller than Bralor and only his cruel disposition made him nearly as intimidating. His horns grew straight up from his skull and then jutted forward, and his chest scales seemed the color of slate while his red spine fins had the shape. And the end of his tail looked like a hefty piece of freshly cut obsidian.

Bralor seemed unconcerned and merely shrugged in response.

Mikeal noticed them come in and sneered in their direction before he quickly put on a mask of indifference as old Terrador walked by.

Fernous also noticed the new arrivals and walked over to greet them. "Bralor, Miaora, Ignitus, good morn-" Fernous was interrupted by the musical toll of the Noontime bell, and then smoothly corrected himself with a lopsided smile.

"Good afternoon now I guess, isn't it? Well, go find a spot while the memorial is lowered, and we'll begin.

Ignitus liked Fernous. He has been the Guardian of Fire since a couple season-cycles before Ignitus was born, was officially instated along with the new Guardian of Wind, and has taken up the role as Guardian with a confident but fun-loving and enthusiastic attitude accompanied by his slightly lopsided grin that everyone liked. He was a normal shade of red with orange hues over his wings, but he had an unusual tint of blue that lined the outside of his tan chest-scales and horns, as well as running down his spine. The abnormality was accentuated by how long Fernous' body was, his head stood a little taller than the other Guardians and his slim body and tail gave him a more serpentine appearance.

As Ignitus, Bralor, and Miaora headed to sit over with their friends among the twenty-three other students, a rush of wind whirled into the room with a frantic-looking silver wind dragon speeding in behind it. The dragon flared his four wings out to slow himself down and landed haphazardly in front of Terrador.

The poor wind dragon's eyes went wide as he tried to steady his rapid breathing. Terrador waited patiently until he regained composure.

"I'm- so sorry I'm late Master Terrador. My older sister just- birthed an egg, and there were- complications. I had to fly as fast as I could to get the healers and then get here. Oh my. Ancestors, I'm an uncle. By the light of the Ancestors, I'm an uncle!"

"Mmm, I'd heard your sister Vantinna was expecting. I'm sorry there were problems Ardinal. I will excuse you, but I'm sure it won't happen again?"

Ardinal quickly nodded his head with a soft thank you, and he practically skipped over to the group as the room gently quaked and the Memorial sunk into the ground to be covered by the retractable floor.

Fernous' lopsided grin lit up his face. "I'm sure you will be a great uncle Ardinal. Now, let's get started! Since we have an even thirty today we'll go ahead and split into two groups. Master Terrador will take the first group in the close-quarters grappling techniques and I'll take elemental combinations, then we'll rotate."

Terrador and Fernous listed off the names of the students they would take in each group, and Ignitus wasn't surprised when Bralor was chosen first to go to the close-quarters class, it was his uncontested specialty after all. Ignitus and Ike bumped paws when they were both chosen to go to the elemental practice, along with a relieved Ardinal, a crestfallen looking Miaora, and Mikeal as well. Teslie and Kayla looked a little disappointed they were put in the close-quarters grappling group, but were relieved to at least be together.

After the two groups were separated, Ignitus lined up in between Ike and an electricity dragon of his same age with tall and jagged spine-spikes. He'd seen the dragon around school, but he didn't know his name. They exchanged an acknowledging nod before they focused their attention to Fernous, who was busy setting up targets to practice on.

"Alright, each of you have your target. Let's start with in-movement element combination number four. Remember, leap forward as high as you can and fire your element at the peak of your jump, land in a forward roll with an alternate elemental attack and dodge left with a twisting tail-strike. Repeat twenty times, and if you finish before everyone is done simply practice your aim with your most difficult elemental attack. Don't forget to give yourself adequate distance. Go ahead."

Ignitus chose to work with his weaker element of earth and quickly lost himself in the demanding but fun combat practice. They started going through all the different forms and combinations designed to open up a foes guard and cause damage to vital areas in rapid succession.

In the time he was working on his twenty repetitions, Ignitus soon found himself wondering about his future again. Where will he go and do after the Trial? He's thought about joining the Warfang guard, he's pretty good at combat and could learn more quite quickly. But the lifestyle of a soldier just doesn't appeal to him. Especially now that the Guard are more like a peacekeeping police force than an army. He knew his title as 'Spyro's son' could get him anywhere, but he really wants to prove he can do things without that title.

"Ignitus. Watch your aim, and keep your head low when you use your element."

Ignitus refocused and smoothly refined his technique as he rushed in with an upward earth blast followed by a midair kick, slamming the target into the floor with a follow-up tail strike.

Fernous gave an encouraging smile and a nod as he moved on to correct errors and encourage the others.

Over on the other side, Ignitus saw Bralor facing a large bipedal dummy. His older brother lunged forward with a deep grunt and suddenly twisted under the swing of the dummy's sword-like club with a speed and an explosiveness that belied his bulk. The twist turned into a vicious grappling move that carried Bralor's momentum behind the dummy with his paw locked around it's neck and his heavy tail hooked around it's leg, carrying the dummy over Bralor's hips to crash head first into the stone floor.

Terrador's gravelly voice boomed through the noise of the students. "Well done Bralor, remember to strike nearer to the outside of the rib cage to turn the opponent further into your hold, and stay lower in your hip-throw so you don't have to put any more energy into it then you need."

That impressed Ignitus, he didn't even notice Bralor hit the dummy in any way, but further inspection revealed a paw-sized cavity in the dummy's rib cage.

Ignitus looked over to Ike, who was finishing up his element combination with an ice spike though the dummy's foot immediately followed by a jarring horn strike to it's chin and a crushing blow to it's exposed midsection with an ice-encrusted paw. Ike caught his eye and gave a grin that Ignitus impudently reciprocated.

Ignitus heard an unimpressed huff from behind him on the right and turned to see Mikeal with a disdainful look on his face.

"What's your problem?" Ignitus half-whispered.

Mikeal's scathing tone made Ignitus' blood boil. "Huh, your friend's lack of skill is a problem."

Ignitus nearly walked right up to Mikeal before Ike grabbed his shoulder and leaned over to speak in Ignitus' ear. "Leave it be, you know he's just tryin' to get you in trouble."

"Well I wouldn't have as much of a problem if he insulted me instead of my friends."

Ike chuckled. "Thanks, but don't worry about it-"

"Ike, Ignitus, unless you're helping each other with your forms, this conversation can wait." Fernous said with a firm but kind tone.

After they responded with a 'yes sir' and went back to practice, the rest of the class went smoothly. They switched to the close-quarters grappling side where Ignitus and Ike paired up to practice on each other.

And when the Academy bell rung, Ignitus' resentment to Mikeal was forgotten when he and Ike mock-growled and started to playfully wrestle together until Kayla, Teslie, and Bralor came over.

"Hi guys!" Ike squeaked with a goofy grin through the headlock Ignitus had wrapped around his neck.

"Ignitus, you know it's not good when a blue dragon is turning red in the face, right?"

Ike made a ridiculously exaggerated gasp when Ignitus released him and helped him up. "Nice one," Ike breathed heavily, "But I'll remember that move next time." Ike turned to Teslie and comically declared; "My savior! I owe you a great debt."

"Yes. Yes you do. Especially after all the history work I've 'helped' you with."

"Oh. Blood and ashes."

Ignitus and Teslie laughed at Ike's expression as Kayla told Ike to wash his mouth out with a Mane'athorn bush for his language.

As the laughter subsided, Miaora walked up with her satchel over her wing and smiled at Bralor. "I have to go. Bye Muscles."

Ike snickered and nudged Bralor as the larger dragon gave a small smile. "Hey Big Guy, I'm pretty sure someone likes you!"

"Ikelle Daerodran! Don't tease him like that." Kayla only half-seriously reprimanded him. Bralor simply shrugged, which was like two mountains deciding to stand up and sit down again.

Teslie picked up her satchel and turned to the group. "Well friends, I have to go to my Science Of Magic class. See you all later!"

They said their goodbyes and picked up their own book bags. But before Ignitus and Bralor headed out in to the hallway, Fernous called Ignitus back saying he wanted to talk to him.

"See you at the south grounds Bralor?"

Bralor slowly nodded. "As usual." He rumbled.

So Ignitus turned back to talk to Fernous.

xXXx

* * *

 **Hi Again! Thanks for reading and I hope you liked it.  
**  
 **I was told that it might be a good idea to make longer chapters, but I think I'm going to just build up to it instead of just exploding a huge chapter out right after two relatively small ones.**

 **May I ask a couple specific questions?**  
 **-How was my Imagery?**  
 **-What do you think of the dialog style?**

 **It may be good to note that I generally do a TON of editing, and a fair bit of that is after the reviews start coming in. So If you find a mistake or notice that a section seems weird for some reason- (and you let me know about it)- the chapter will be a lot better after a couple weeks compared to when it was first published.**

 **Please let me know what you think so I can continue to get better! As hard as it is; I love writing, and I want to make this as good as I can make it!**

 **Love Y'all!**

 **Buffbill**


	4. Chapter 4: An Unusual Day

**Life is chaos. But I'm sure you are already well aware of that.**

 **Golly. It's been almost forever since I last uploaded the last chapter.**

 **But here is chapter 4!**

* * *

 **The Next Generation**

 **Chapter 4**

 **An Unusual Day**

* * *

The room rumbled and vibrated as the huge white marble statue rose back up from it's place of protection under the stone floor of the Dojo. After it stopped, Master Fernous walked over to stand next to it. He looked up into the kind but weathered face of his predecessor with a thoughtful expression.

"Ignitus..."

"Uh... Yes sir?"

Fernous turned to look at the young dark purple dragon. "Hmm, sorry young'un. I don't think I'm sure who I was talking to there." Fernous gave a light chuckle.

"Anyway, on to the reason why I asked you to stay. I wanted to ask you about your 'different' element, if you don't mind. Your Father has told me you don't like to use it."

Ignitus nodded with a slightly bashful face. "Yes sir. It's pretty destructive, and it's... Um." Ignitus paused bashfully. "Well. It kinda scares me."

"Really? Would you be too adverse to showing me how much you've progressed with it?"

Ignitus tilted to look around Fernous and saw one element target standing behind him. Ignitus gave a wry smile. "Well, I guess not Sir."

Fernous stepped aside to give Ignitus room and offered an encouraging smile. So Ignitus faced the target and grimaced as he prepared to use his mysterious element.

He calmed, took a solid stance, a deep breath, and concentrated.

He let the wall over his spark lower, just a little. But the raw and exhilarating force suddenly poured over and erupted through his body, bringing with it a faint and slightly foul taint, like a drop of oil in a pool of water.

Sharp shards of hot steel seemed to scourge through his veins, but it was invigorating and painless. It spread like a rancid smell of decomposing blood that seeped into him along with the intoxicatingly sweet power that threatened to engulf him.

A ferocious wave of completely lightless fire sucked light out of the room as it flared from Ignitus' jaw like a blazing torch and enveloped the target with a dead sounding sizzle. Waves of the sweet and terrifyingly tempting power threatened to overwhelm his soul. Even as it called, it seemed to beg him to draw more. The lightless fire burned the very air and ate right through the target. With a surge of willpower, Ignitus shoved the wall back over the tidal wave that flooded out of his spark, stopping the infinitesimal trickle of repugnant decay that came with it.

A section of the floor seemed etched and dissolved. And not even ash was left from the vaporized wooden target.

Ignitus' shoulders sagged as he sat down heavily on his haunches and raised a paw to wipe perspiration from his snout.

He looked down at the floor and then apologetically up at Fernous. "Oops. I'm so sorry."

Fernous' wide eyed expression faded. "No Ignitus, it's quite alright." Fernous took a breath and surveyed the light damage. "I believe you have Advanced Airborne Acrobatics next with Master Nado'tor, correct?'

"Yes sir."

"Then just you forget about the floor, and let me give you a letter for Master Nado'tor to explain why you're a little late."

Ignitus put the scrap of parchment that Fernous handed him into his satchel as he stood back up. "Thank you Master Fernous."

"No, thank _you_ Ignitus. Now go on, I'll deal with the floor."

With his friendly and encouraging lopsided grin, Fernous waved Ignitus out of the room.

Ignitus started out the doors and made his way back down the stairs. As he walked down the flight, he fought to contain the light shivers that emanated from his chest and ignored the faint call to unleash that power again.

He wondered why Fernous wanted to see his ability as he heard the sounds of other students get louder with every step down.

At the bottom of the sandstone stairs, he turned the right corner to go through the crowded hall leading outside and saw Mikeal leaning against the wall with his girlfriend, Arin. She was a spiky but attractive orange fire dragoness despite an almost permanently sulky countenance.

Barely suppressing a burst of bitter resentment, Ignitus gave Mikeal a politely acknowledging nod while shifting his path to avoid him.

To his surprise, Mikeal said goodbye to Arin with a genuinely fond smile and then turned to start walking down the hall beside him. Ignitus looked over to see Mikeal looking straight ahead with no outward sign of hostility. Out of curiosity, but mostly the desire to get rid of him, Ignitus asked him an only half-polite sounding question.

"Hello, Mikeal. What do you want?"

Mikeal's rough voice had a light tone as he acted as if Ignitus had asked him how he was doing. "Nothing much, I'm just walking the same way you are to get to a different class. How about you?"

"I would like to know what you have against my friends."

"Really, and why do you want to know that?"

Ignitus took a moment to consider that odd response. "Because I care for them, and I want to know why you take every opportunity to put them down."

Mikeal's visage swiftly morphed into a cruel sneer as he stopped walking to turn and face Ignitus. His obsidian tail-tip angrily curling behind him. "Well then. I'm gonna be completely straight with you Ignitus... They're weak, and have only attached to you because they think you have power. But your power only comes from your genes."

He paused to let a gaggle of happy younger dragons dash around their legs, and looked right into Ignitus' incredulous expression, ignoring the wary glances of other students.

"You have it _so_ _easy_. No one wants to get on the wrong side of the 'son of the Grand Master Guardian'. You've never had to fight to be recognized. I've earned my place, and yours was handed to you. That makes you weak. And if it weren't for your parents; I'd crush you."

Ignitus' incredulity was replaced with curling hackles as Mikeal continued. "Your friends are blind sycophants, fools, and couldn't find the end of their tail if it was chopped off and fed to -"

Ignitus lunged forward as an enraged roar burst out of him, but he was stopped fast by a massive green paw that grasped his horns and turned his head into a gentle but almost inescapable neck-joint lock. Mikeal leaped back before he noticed the intimidatingly large figure of Bralor holding a struggling Ignitus back. After he quickly disguised the slightly startled look on his face, Mikeal let out a mocking laugh as he looked around at the growing crowd and raised his voice for more to hear.

"So Ignitus needs his big half-brother to fight his battles huh? Wow, what a coward."

Bralor, who kept his voice low, somehow made his voice plainly audible to all those listening while keeping it both calm and rumbling, like distant thunder.

"Mikeal. I am not holding him back because I think he can't beat you. I hold him back so he does not regret getting blood in his claws."

The ring of students parted to let Bralor through as he guided the trapped Ignitus down the hall, and finally let him go when the flow of students slowed to just a few.

Ignitus sniffed as he sat on his haunches to recompose himself.

"Thank you Bralor."

A small nod was the only response.

Ignitus couldn't shake what Mikeal said out of his head.

 _Your power only comes from your genes.  
_

"I let him rile me because he was insulting Ike, Kayla, and Teslie."

"Understandable."

 _I've earned my place, yours was handed to you. That makes you weak._

"Why were you there when you were?"

Bralor tilted his head and slowly shrugged. "I saw him waiting. So I waited. Just in case."

"Oh."

 _I'd crush you._

Ignitus took a deep breath. "Well I'm okay now Bralor. Thank you again. I'm gonna head to Advanced Airborne Acrobatics. I'll see you later."

Bralor nodded again as Ignitus stood up and shook himself, as if to shake off the thoughts trying to invade his head.

He started to walk toward the outside Flight Instruction Zone, and thought that, maybe; Mikeal had a point.

XxxX

* * *

He was lost, thoughtless, feeling nothing but the wind across his scales and the light pressure on his wings. A controlled freefall was so peaceful, completely peaceful if it weren't for the knowledge that you had to pull up at some point, and also the knowledge of the consequences if you didn't.

He had a few seconds left, and he enjoyed them.

But the time came, so as he felt the earth coming up towards him, he moved the wind around him to form a controlled flow of updraft that slowed his descent.

He smoothly extended his golden orange wings and lightly touched down on the cobbled stone street in front of the doorstep of a cutely quaint house. It's sky blue exterior painted over with a copious amount of little flowers of many vibrant colors. The ones closer to the base were a little less detailed and fine as the ones that were made above them.

A royal purple paw rose to gently rap on the wooden door and then lowered back down to patiently wait. A light scuffle sounded through the door before it opened to reveal a sweet-looking and elderly earth dragoness who somehow seemed like she was expecting him.

"Why, hello, young Master Guardian Spyro. What brings you here?"

"Good morning Miss Alaina Daerodran. I simply need to speak with you for a moment, I hope this is a good time?"

She tilted her graying head with a raised eyebrow and a smile. "Now what would the Restorer of the World need to talk with me about? I do hope Ike hasn't gotten himself in any major trouble."

Spyro chuckled. "No ma'am, Ike is in no trouble. That I know of at least. May I come in?"

Alaina nodded and waved him in with a wing, so he followed the old green dragoness into the living space. The inside was warm and smelled of orange spiced tea leaves. The kitchen was relatively clean, but definitely showed signs of hungry and messy teenage dragons.

There was also a large window facing the east with a cozy pad to lie on under the window. It had an exceptionally full bookshelf next to it and a glass bowl of salted nuts to snack on.

But the thing that really caught Spyro's eyes was a large piece of dark red shoulder armor with the swirling insignia of a Battalion Commander inscribed on it. The heavy steel was framed in a cube of glass and sat upon a table in a corner.

Aliana dragged up a soft and plushy yellow floor cushion to the table for Spyro to sit his haunches on and asked if he would like some tea. He cheerfully accepted and thanked her as she went to the kitchen to pour an extra cup. She soon came back to give him the mug of citrus smelling tea and sat down at the table with him.

"Well young Mister Spyro... What is it you need to speak to me about?

"Miss Daerodran-"

"Alaina, darlin'."

"Alaina. Actually, before I ask my original question; is that piece of armor your husbands?"

She turned to look at the armor piece with a memory-filled smile. "Yes, it was. His name was Katros. The Commander of Battalion Eleven, one of the first battalions to engage in combat with the apes when they first attacked. We weren't young even back then, and Katros never liked to lead a battle from behind."

"If you don't mind me asking. What happened?"

Alaina took a breath and gave him a short summery.

"He led a strike against an ape controlled outpost that cut off supplies of our healing gems, and he took a random spear to the ribs. He fought through it for a while, but a comrade of his got knocked into him from one of those nasty dynamite sticks, and that drove the spear in further. They ended up winning, but he didn't make it."

"Oh, I'm sorry Aliana. That was around... Three years before my time wasn't it? I still remember when I first met Master Ignitus, and he told me of the War. How the apes would besiege areas and conquer them."

"Indeed. It was around three years. Oh, but you are not here for a history lesson. Don't let me ramble young one."

"Oh it's more than alright. I may be the Grand Master Guardian with stories of my own, but I still enjoy listening to... Um... Wiser and more experienced dragons."

Alaina lifted an eyebrow with a knowing look and a smile. "I know I'm old. I do however, appreciate your diplomacy."

Spyro let a sly grin escape his muzzle. "Well, I've also learned that flattering your elders is a good way to learn things."

They both chuckled heartily.

"Anyway." Spyro continued after a sip of the surprisingly flavorful tea. "To my reason for coming here, first I need to make sure that you are Kayla and Ike's grandmother and their legal protector."

"Yes I am. I brought their mother into the world."

"May I know what happened to their parents?"

"Well, many season-cycles ago, I lived in Greentide with my daughter, Rylin, after the war ended. We also took shelter there when the World was breaking. After you pulled the world back together, many refugees of smaller communities came to Greentide for shelter. And soon, my Rylin met a striking young ice dragon named Matrim. I liked him, he had a very sly but tasteful sense of humor. They got married after a while and eventually had Kayla. But when Ike was on the way, Rylin started to have health problems. She never got to see Ike before he hatched. And Matrim, I guess he couldn't handle not having her there with him, so he vanished, leaving me with my grand kids." Alaina sniffed.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know all these questions I would ask would bring up those kinds of memories."

Alaina wiped her eyes with the back of her paw and sat up straighter with a strong and resolute expression. "It's quite alright young Mister Spyro. I've found that it's good to relive those memories once in a while, it keeps your perspective straight."

Spyro nodded thoughtfully. "That it does. So now that my precursor questions have been answered. I need your permission for something special I'd like to do...

* * *

Spyro walked out from Alaina Daerodran's home waving goodbye to Ike and Kayla's grandmother, the friendly and down-to-earth elderly dragoness. She was remarkably good company and they spent quite a while simply talking. But Spyro was on a mission, so after he finished his third cup of tea, she walked with him over to the front door.

"Miss Alaina, thank you so very much for your hospitality. It was certainly a pleasure getting to know you."

"And you, Master Guardian. I would absolutely love to have your entire family over for a meal someday. To meet your wife, and my grandchildren's best friends."

"I know for certain we would love that as well. I'm already looking forward to it. Let us know through our kids as soon as you're ready, please!"

Alaina nodded, and with a final farewell, Alaina closed her front door with a cheery wave.

Spyro stood outside on the cobblestone street to enjoy the warmth of the noon sun on his back as he mentally plotted the route to his next destination. He decided to simply walk through the city this time, figuring he had a bit of time to kill. So he turned to his right, heading north-west, and started walking down the road.

This road was mainly residential, with lawns and big trees for shade in the yards. Spyro noticed that many showed signs of young-ones, according to the little play-structures and toys scattered around the properties. Several had bright and creative designs made with colored rocks called chalk. One house had what looked like a simplistic cheetah wielding a bow sketched out on the stone road.  
Another had a strange creature drawn in green chalk, it had one big eye on a curly stalk that branched out into winding tendrils that coiled around themselves in loops. Spyro recognized it as The Creature From Fareaway, a time-honored and classic tale told to all kinds of young ones during camping trips around a fire.

That was one of Ignitus' favorite stories when he was younger, however the story about when he and Cynder faced down the Golem of the Deep definitely topped that one.

Spyro's walk took him through several streets and out of the residential area where he soon came across the market district. Local shops were selling fruits and vegetables, meats, tools, weapons and armor, as well as furniture and decorations. There were always creatures of every local kind going about their own day, and the sound of their bustle rose from every side.

With his eyes meandering through the crowd, Spyro noticed a blue dragoness with a recently hatched and squirmy little green dragon wrapped up in a sling tied to her side. She struggled to carry several bags of groceries as her little one happily and doggedly struggled to get out of the sling. Suddenly acting on his natural impulse to help, Spyro started walking over to offer assistance.

The little hatchling let loose a mighty squeak as he popped out of the sling, rolled across the road, and clambered to his paws to enjoy his new-found freedom. As his mother yelled for him to come back, the tiny dragon propelled himself over his clumsy paws into the crowded street.

And hopped into the path of a massive wooden cart carrying bricks.

The world froze.

But Spyro continued to walk forward, weaving through almost motionless dragons, moles, and the odd cheetah. There was even a badger, little less than twice as tall as the common mole. He was immobilized while walking up the street with a rolled up rug under his black furry arm. It looked like he was in the middle of blinking, giving him a sleepy look. Ignoring the badger, Spyro wove his way through and reached the hatchling caught in mid-leap with a gleeful expression on his face. Spyro stopped, he didn't want to startle or traumatize the little one by just appearing there in front of him. So he stood behind him and placed his paw where he could catch the hatchling, then released his grip on time, allowing it's flow to continue.

The little green dragon landed into Spyro's wide purple paw with a squeak as Spyro swiftly pulled him out of the cart's path. The mole who drove the cart yelped and sharply turned the cart in his panic, causing Spyro to grunt as a couple bricks tumbled out to bounce off his heavily muscled back.

Spyro held him firmly but as gently as possible against his chest while the large cart rumbled past. His mother rushed over ignoring the startled yelps, wide eyes, and amazed exclamations of those who witnessed Spyro's dramatic appearance out of nowhere. Someone dropped a ceramic pot, adding to the general confusion.

The blue dragoness frantically pushed though the crowd to reach them, and when she stopped in front of Spyro, he smiled reassuringly as he handed the vigorously wriggling hatchling to her.

"Good afternoon ma'am. I believe this lively young dragon is yours?"

With a joyful exclamation of thanks, she scooped her son up into her arms and hugged him close, almost sobbing with relief.

"Oh, thank you! Thank you! You've saved my Ruke -."

Her voice broke and she suddenly darted forward to hug her son's savior. So Spyro returned her hug with a comforting one in return and let her calm herself down. But she soon realized just whom she was hugging, and hurriedly released him muttering embarrassed apologies.

"Oh my, I'm so sorry Master Spyro. I didn't mean to just- I mean, just hug you like that. I-"

Spyro stopped her with a gentle chuckle. "No, no Ma'am. Please believe me, it's quite alright. Is Ruke okay?"

The new mother looked down to examine the curious little one's green figure and confirmed his well-being with a nod, not quite trusting her voice yet.

Spyro smiled. "Good, I'm glad. May I help you with your bags?"

The young mother's eyes widened and she hastily said no. Saying that he must be very busy and she wouldn't want to be any bother. Besides, her husband would be back quite soon after his own errands were run.

"Well, then I'm very happy I could help, and I wish joy to you and your family."

"And to you as well. Thank you so much, Master Spyro."

They parted ways, and Spyro continued to walk toward his original destination as the early afternoon sun warmed his scales.

XxxX

* * *

Ignitus watched the world spin as he twirled in mid-air to avoid a rubber-tipped arrow that buzzed by his flank and under his wing. He pulled his wings close to turn into a twisting dive and snapped his wings back out to climb higher into the air facing the other direction. His shoulders burned. He turned his head to see his classmates weave through the air and grimaced as he saw another arrow rising up toward him from the corner of his eye. He curled his wings across his body and tried to deflect it, then grunted as the arrow hit his right wing at a much stronger angle than he would have liked. That hurt. He then awkwardly corrected his orientation so he was back upright.

He heard two short blasts of the whistle and one long one. It was time for the tough part.

Ignitus took a deep breath and dove along with his classmates, he held the dive until he abruptly pulled up to fly parallel to the turf about one adult dragons height over it.

Over on Ignitus' left, the new uncle and silver wind dragon, Ardinal, flew alongside him with a determined look on his face. The entire Airborne Acrobatics class flew in one long row across the huge grassy field, directly in front of the Cheetah's class of novice archers.

 _What a great way for two different classes to help each other._ Ignitus thought sarcastically. _One gets shooting practice, the other gets dodging practice._

One sharp blast of the whistle sounded, and the class of archers fired.

A hail of the rubber-tipped arrows arched up into the air and fell. And every dragon in the line reacted at once. Somehow, most managed to maneuver around each other with an unusual lack of collision, and even displayed a certain amount of teamwork. Ignitus and Ardinal flew side by side, and both twisted and wove through the rain of arrows with the majority of the training arrows shooting past them with only a few grazing their sides. Ignitus thought it was over, but in that moment of lassitude, a final arrow sailed unseen and straight for Ignitus' head.

"Look out!"

Ardinal launched himself into Ignitus and tried to bump him out of the way. The arrow slammed into the base of Ignitus' left horn. And a sharp light burst behind Ignitus' eyes as his neck reflexively spasmed.

The whistle blasted once again, and the class started circling in the air to slow their speed for a safe landing.

Disoriented, Ignitus allowed Ardinal to help him stay upright as he shook the water out of his blurring eyes.

Ignitus' paws hit the turf. His breath came in deep gasps, and his back and shoulder muscles shook with the prolonged exertion. The base of his horn ached. Even only 2 rounds of the Airborne acrobatic drills was not an easy task.

Ardinal also shook and gasped for breath as he landed after Ignitus. Their eyes met, and they shared a look that said they were both glad that was over.

"Hey. Thanks for saving my skull back there."

Ardinal gave a tired grin. "No problem friend. Whew. Fridays are exhausting."

Ignitus gave a gasping chuckle at Ardinal's especially observant comment as he looked up to watch his thirteen other classmates come back to the ground. Four of them are wind dragons, including Ardinal. The others are a smattering of fire, ice, and electricity dragons.

There was only one earth dragon, he was surprisingly slim and quite good at using his wings to block projectiles while remaining airborne. Ignitus remembered his name was Shordan. He and a couple others simply collapsed on the vibrantly green field to recover as one very kind Ice dragon walked around giving the exhausted students some cold patches on the ground to lay their sore backs and wings on.

As Wind Master Nado'tor glided down from his position in the air to land among his class, Ignitus noticed that his instructor's regal-looking countenance seemed pleased with the work of his students. He walked around his class offering suggestions for improvements, and eventually wound his way toward Ignitus and Ardinal.

Master Nado'tor is a silvery-gray shade of color that is pretty average for most wind dragons, but it blends well with his white horns and wing membranes. His long horns splay back behind his head and smoothly curl to point outward, away from the guiding fins along his neck. And like most wind dragons, he has four wings along his back. The two primary ones in the usual place on the shoulder blades, and the two smaller secondary ones right before the hip joints.

But the most remarkable thing about Master Nado'tor's appearance was his scales. Besides the admittedly rather common color, his scales seem to shimmer and ripple according to the air currents around him. You can tell what direction the wind is going with one glance at his sides. It gave him an almost ethereal appearance, especially when combined with his smooth walk.

Master Nado'tor is also rather punctilious in the way he teaches, very matter-of-fact. The blunt but not harsh way he spoke was a little jarring if you're not used to it.

"Hmm. I'm glad you two are still standing. Ardinal, you preformed quite well today. A little faster than usual. Looked like a little more effort. Let me see that again next time."

Ardinal grinned and nodded with a flutter of his smaller set of wings. Obviously his excitement about being a new uncle pushed him a little harder today.

"And Ignitus. A little distracted today I think? You know that focus is imperative. Work on that for this week."

"Yes Sir, I will." Ignitus kept his face flat, but he felt detached and tired. Fridays really were exhausting.

As Master Nado'tor continued his strategic wandering through his students, Ardinal sat down on his haunches next to Ignitus.

"Any plans for this weekend, Ignitus?"

"No, not that I know of. How about you?"

"Well I think I'm about to learn a lot about how hard a baby dragon is to take care of."

"Do you have any idea what your sister is going to name him? Or her?"

"He's a him. And I don't have a clue what Vantinna is gonna name him. I haven't heard her or Jairus talking about it."

"Maybe they're making it a surprise for later."

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that." Ardinal raised an eyebrow as he contemplated the suggestion.

Ignitus heard Master Nado'tor whistle with his precision use of Wind magic to call his students together, so he nudged Ardinal up so they could walk over and gather around their instructor.

"Well done today." Master Nado'tor said. "You all know what I've told you to work on. And as always, I expect improvement." And with a very small smile, he said, "Now go, and fly well."

The class departed with a general feeling of accomplishment, as a 'well done' from Nado'tor was practically something to be written in the history books. Ignitus walked with Ardinal back to the massive oak doors of the academy.

"Hey, Ignitus. Thanks for flying with me today, I appreciated it. See you next week?"

"Absolutely. And Ardinal, thank you again for the save. I'll see you later."

They waved goodbye with their wings as Ardinal walked down the hall and turned out of sight. Ignitus took a deep breath and exhaled sharply. He had not realized that he was so obviously distracted during his flight drills. But now that he thought about it, he never actually stopped mulling over Mikeal's words.

Ignitus shook his head.

 _"Mikeal is wrong about my friends. And I know that for certain. Why have I let him get under my scales?"_

"Ugh, stop it Ignitus." He scoffed at himself. "I have Culture Studies and Terrain Scouting up next, and like Nado'tor said, I need to focus."

So Ignitus vigorously shook himself all over and strode to his next class with a purpose.

His last two classes flew by in a relative blur. Thoughts of the confrontation with Mikeal and the collision with the arrow barely crossed his mind as he forced himself to focus on his work in the moment. He was surprised when he aced the culture studies quiz. That was usually his weakest subject.

He walked out of that classroom with a wave to his teacher, a studious black mole named Timotheus who found the differences in cultures and the reasons behind them fascinating. And he started on his way through the many halls of the Academy on towards the south grounds, where Ignitus' brother and his friends would always meet after their classes were over on Fridays.

Ignitus felt a little self-conscious as he walked down the halls to the outer doors. Knowing that most of the older students probably knew of the tense encounter between himself and Mikeal. He was usually confident when eyes were on him, but not this time.

Golden orange light shone in through the western gate and illuminated the minuscule dust moats floating in the slightly humid air. They would stir around when a dragon would walk through them. As the sun went on in its journey towards the horizon, it shone in Ignitus' eyes while he walked out the large oak gate and down the dirt pathway.

To his right, Ike and Kayla were both sitting in the shade of a massive fir tree next to Teslie who was laying on the grass reading. Kayla saw him first and waved him over.

"Hi Ignitus!"

Ignitus brightened and jogged over the lawn to them. "Hey friends! How's your day been?"

"Well enough." Ike replied with a smile. "But for some reason, it's been hard for me to swallow recently."

Ignitus raised a mocking eyebrow. "Hmm. Choking on your defeat maybe?"

Ike sat for a moment looking stunned, then burst into laughter.

"Nice one Ignitus, that was smooth." Said Kayla. She wore a light smile that looked like she was holding back a little laughter as well.

"How about you Teslie?" Ignitus said as he sat down with a thump. "How has your day been?"

Teslie did not even glance up from her book as she held one claw up, silently asking him to give her a minute. She soon closed her book as she reached a point to stop and set the book back in her leather satchel laying on the grass. Then she redirected her attention up at Ignitus with a smile on her yellow face.

"My day has gone very well, thanks Ignitus. But my usual teacher for Science Of Magic class was ill today, and I don't think his substitute really knew what he was doing."

"Oh, that's a bummer. I finally did good on my-"

"-Well"

"What?"

Teslie rolled her eyes. "You did not 'did good', you dolt. You did well."

Ignitus grinned apologetically. "Fine. I did 'well' on my Culture Studies quiz for once."

"That's good."

"You mean 'that's well'?"

Teslie groaned and let her face fall into her paw.

Ignitus let up from the friendly teasing as Ike called out to Bralor who was crossing the grass.

"Hey! There's Bralor!"

"I wonder why he's late? He's normally the first one here." Said Kayla.

As the rest of the group turned to wave, he continued his powerfully long strides until he reached them.

"What's up Big Guy? You usually beat us here." Ignitus said.

Bralor shrugged.

"Oh come on." Kayla prodded him in his naturally armored shoulder with her icicle-shaped tail tip. "There's not a lot that can stop you when you're moving, so whatever it was had to have been a big deal."

Now that all his friends were looking up at him in expectant curiosity, he shuffled his big paws and sat down. His deep voice rumbled as he replied.

"I stopped to play with the younger kids."

They kept their mouths shut, silently urging him to continue.

"They swarmed me and wanted to know whether or not I could carry them all around."

"And? So did you?" Asked Kayla.

"They didn't give me much choice."

Teslie grinned. "That's so adorable! I bet they loved that didn't they?"

Bralor shrugged and nodded.

"Aw, you big gentle giant you." Ike teased.

After a little while, and as the playful banter slowed down, Teslie started their after-school tradition once again.

"Alright, now that everyone is here and ready. Let's go over what we all learned in our classes today."

Everyone except Bralor groaned good-naturedly.

* * *

 **Alright, I finally did it. Like I said before, it's been almost forever since I last uploaded.**

 **A little of it was simply procrastination, but most of it was absences from a computer, and getting stuck trying to figure out just what I wanted in this chapter.**

 **I really hope you've enjoyed it! Even through all the troubles it gave me and the ghastly amount of time it took, I loved writing this. Let me know your thoughts!**

 **-Buffbill**


	5. Chapter 5: Surprise!

**I** **know you've probably seen this before, but...**

 **No, I'm not dead.**

 **I'm sure nobody was actually thinking that. But it really has taken _far_ too long** **. No excuses. I was lazy this time, and I just didn't work on this as often as I should have. However, when I did get to work on this: I still had a bunch of fun with creating this chapter, and I hope you thoroughly enjoy the continuation of my story!**

 **Phfft. Enough of that. You want to get reading.**

* * *

 **The Next Generation**

 **Chapter 5**

 **Surprise!**

* * *

It's a surprisingly small house.

That was Spyro's first thought as he walked up the steep cobblestone road to the little two-story house on top of the hill. It was rectangular in shape and had smoothly white painted wooden walls. There was a porch on the long side of the building that had cushioned furniture on it. Since it faced the west, it probably offered wonderful views of the sunsets. There was a little splash of pretty color from orange wildflowers sitting in their pots out the second floor window.

As Spyro got closer, a violent explosion from the other side of the house sent up a cloud of acrid smoke that burned Spyro's nostrils even from that distance.

Since his Dragon Time had not completely recovered from almost completely stopping the flow of time earlier. Spyro reacted swiftly and sent a wall of wind to push the suffocating smoke up and away from the ground, and as he ran up the hill he felt down into the earth to sense who or what was on the other side. But he was surprised again as he felt only two sets of paw-falls through the ground.

"TIELO!"

At that loud and strangely furious sounding cry, Spyro let invigorating lighting flow into his dense muscles. It sharpened his senses and sent his uphill sprint into overdrive, his royal purple scales and the vibrant yellow energy blurred and blended together as his pounding paws made furrows in the dirt.

He turned the corner using his wings to stabilize himself, and he stopped as he saw smoking table with a black crater blown through it and broken glass around it. An electricity dragon wearing some kind of protective leather mask, and a very angry fire dragoness slapping the electricity dragon in the face with a wet dishcloth.

"Tielo! By Malefor's Fire! You nearly scared my flaming tail off!"

"Ouch! Sorry dear, I didn't mean it to -oof!- Why the dishcloth, Lille?"

"Because your flaming fish-brained experiments almost blew up the house. Again! Blood and burning ashes! How many times have I told you to wait until your daughter comes home to supervise you?"

"Um-"

"And don't give me and answer like 'seventy-two times'. You know you don't actually know-"

The fire dragoness stopped short when she noticed Spyro standing there with wide eyes and jaw half open.

The electricity dragon brightened immediately into a fantastically large and exuberant grin. "By the Light of the Ancestors! It's Master Spyro! I would bet you know the answer to my questions. Right?"

Still a little stunned, Spyro didn't answer. He instead took a moment to observe the interesting couple. The brightly grinning electric dragon, Tielo, was still wearing his brown leather protective mask. It had many adjustable straps, and the darkened round eye holes looked quite disturbing when paired with that wide toothy smile.

Dark ivory horns stuck out the top of the mask like slim aspen trunks, matching the color of his smoke darkened wings. He was smaller than average, and had yellow scales that were having trouble reflecting light with all the dust and smoke layers covering him. There were discolorations on his forearm and chest scales that led Spyro to think that he had some sort of chemical burn at some point. Spyro had similar injuries from when he faced the poisonous Grove Worms while chasing down Cynder through the Ancient Grove.

His wife Merelille was a different story. While still not large in stature, she looked like she could stare down the Golem of the Deep with sheer attitude. She reminded him of his dragonfly mother, Lily, who was able to shake her finger up at him even after he grew to be thirty times her size.

The dragoness' scales were a deep lava red that blended beautifully with orange-pink chest scales and light tan horns. And her tail-tip looked like a red-hot two pronged poker that could do some damage if used right. The damp dishrag was still clenched in her paw like she was considering slapping Spyro off of her property with it.

Despite the testy look in her eyes and ignoring her earlier cursing, she greeted Spyro with gracious warmth and a gorgeous smile.

"Welcome Grand Master Guardian. To what do we owe this pleasure?"

"Hello Mrs. Merelille, Mr. Tielo. I simply need a moment to speak with you, if this is a not a bad time?"

"Well if my husband could keep his dirty claws off of my daughter's workstation, this would be a great time." She said with a quick glare at her husband.

Tielo either didn't notice or ignored her as he struggled to get the protective mask off his head.

"What was going on here anyway?"

Tielo held up a claw to ask for a moment and sheepishly turned to his wife with a bowed head. "Fire of my Heart? Would you help me, please? I'm stuck."

Spyro barely hid a smile as Merelille extravagantly rolled her eyes in exasperation and loosened the straps that held the mask to his face, he took it off revealing bright orange eyes that had a curious but calculating look.

"Thank you, Dear."

He looked up at Spyro. "To answer your question good sir, my daughter and I have been experimenting with whether or not the energy we use for our breaths could be combined in any sort of way to create or emulate a different element. I would bet you have some knowledge on that subject."

"I've experimented with my own elements, yes."

"I know experiments of this type have been preformed before, but ever since the Breaking of the World we have found many new ores that we've never had any great access to before. I got together with a mole friend of mine who helped me make this special glass tube with this new ore that the moles call Phosgenium Tanate. It has some kind of property that does not allow magic to pass through it's structure.

"This let me capture my own raw elemental energy and see what happens if I paired it with my lovely wife's. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but it resulted in that nasty explosion. Teslie and I could have came and asked you back when we started, but it's so much more fun to figure it out on our own."

"Alright Tielo, don't bore him. Let's go up to the porch so we can see what Master Spyro is _actually_ here to talk to us about."

"It's quite alright Mrs. Merelille. But the sound of that new ore sounds fascinating. Perhaps we can continue this particular conversation later Tielo?"

His wide grin widened further as he replied.

"Most definitely!"

They relocated to the porch and sat on the comfortably cushioned furniture. The mid-afternoon sun was warm on Spyro's right side as he faced Teslie's parents, who were sitting together on the swinging couch.

"First off, thank you both for letting me drop in like this. And I wanted to let you both know that I hear good things about your daughter from all her teachers, almost every day."

They shared a proud smile.

"You are Volteer's nephew, right Tielo? Volteer once told me about having a younger brother."

"Ah, yes. My father, Arkriall. He's living in a little town north of Warfang with my mother right now. I don't think he ever really understood my uncle and I. He was of the opinion that, -things are the way they are, and figuring out the 'why' is a waste of time.- But I think that opinion changed a little when Volteer became a Guardian. Grandpa Ark was the one to give Teslie her first chemistry set."

Merelille leaned forward with a curious light in her eyes not unlike her husbands. "Indeed it was. But I would still like to know why the Grand Master Guardian took the time out of his day to talk to us."

"Yes Ma'am. Here's what I need to talk to you about..."

XxxX

* * *

"So does that mean that it's some kind of a physiological part of us that allows us to use magic?"

"No, I'm saying that our magic is a physiological part of us.

"Ugh, this hurts my head."

Teslie raised her eyebrow at Ike. "Don't you want to know why dragons generally have access to magic far more readily than most other creatures?"

"Um, naw."

"Wait, so there is a physical piece of us that is our magic?"

"Well, not quite, but basically. However it's not all magic in general, only our elemental abilities. But that's just my hypothesis anyway. My father and I have been messing around with that stuff in our spare time."

Ignitus shook his head and held his left horn in his paw. "I'm think I'm with Ike on this one Teslie."

"Oh come on, it's not that bad. Dragons usually describe the use of magic as a "Spark" in their chest that they release energy from, and then allow to manifest into the power we expel through our jaws. And when it is especially focused, can even be controlled outside our bodies. Like a fire dragon weaving a wall of fire, an electric dragon calling lightning down from the sky, and ice dragon making a coat of freezing armor, or an earth dragon flinging a boulder, all without moving a muscle. It also explains why those gems can heal our injuries and refill our energy."

Kayla tilted her head. "So what about other creatures who can use magic?"

"Most of them seem to have the supplement of Spirit Gems and-or a certain affinity to it. Like that crazy Cheetah you told us your dad told you about, right Ignitus?"

"Uh, yeah. I remember Dad telling me about that creepy coot. He had a blue crystal on top of his staff. Wait, what about the Apes back from the first war? Didn't they use magic?"

"No. They simply trapped elemental energy from the dragons they captured and stored it in their weapons. It was not magic, just the captured manifestation of our elements. That's why only the upper ranks had the those special weapons. And they ran out of energy really quickly because the iron they used could not stop the energy from dissipating and permeating out. Like I said, my dad and I have done some research."

"That's pretty fascinating, Teslie."

Teslie beamed as she turned to thank Bralor, whom she thought had been the one to speak. And she squeaked in surprise when her eyes caught the deep violet scales of Spyro.

Spyro lightly chuckled as everyone but Bralor jumped up in surprise at his appearance.

"Hi Dad! What are you doing here?" Ignitus asked.

"I actually came to see all of you."

"All of us?" Asked Kayla.

"Indeed. May I sit with you?"

With the enthusiastic nods of affirmation, Spyro laid down with a thump on the soft grass In between Ike and Teslie, and looked back at the expectantly curious faces in the circle.

"Oh. I guess you want to hear it now, hmm?"

More nods.

"Well then, how does a little overnight vacation sound to you?"

"A vacation? That sounds great to me! When do we go, and where?"

"Now hold on a moment, Ike." Said Kayla. She turned back to Spyro as she ignored Ike's sputtered protests. "What's this all about Sir? It sounds like this was just an idea that popped in your head."

Spyro gave a short chuckle at her perceptivity. "You would be right, Kayla. I knew you were all disappointed about postponing the Trial. So I wanted to give you the opportunity to go out and still have a fun weekend. I actually visited your house earlier today Kayla. Your grandmother is a fascinating person by the way."

Ike and Kayla looked at each other and grinned.

"She gave me permission to go ahead and bring you on this little adventure. So, if you want to of course. You two are free to come. And Teslie, I talked to your mother and father as well. They were so happy with the idea that they volunteered to come along and join you. So they could have some fun while also making sure all of you stay safe."

"Alright! I don't mind your mom and dad coming with us, Teslie. Your dad is a pretty cool guy."

"Thanks, Ignitus. Yeah, he is kinda crazy, but he's cool. Where are we going, Sir?"

"Well, Teslie. I figured you all should choose where you want to go. I had a couple places in mind. Like Emerald Lake in West Avalar Valley, those fun Wind Tunnels of the Low Plains, the Ocean-"

"Ooh! The Ocean? I like the Ocean."

Spyro smiled. "Sounds like Ike has voted for the Ocean. Anybody else?"

Ignitus nodded vigorously. "I'm down for that! I've wanted to practice my wing surfing!"

"How about you, Bralor?" Asked Teslie.

"Sure." He rumbled with a firm and decisive nod.

"I would love to see the ocean again. Especially at night! You with us Kayla?"

"Absolutely, Teslie! I'd like to darken my scales in the sun a bit. Ooh! And make a massive sand-fortress!"

"Alright then! Looks like it's unanimous. Does leaving tomorrow morning fit for you?"

The exited and enthusiastic exclamations were more than enough answer for Spyro. "Then go on and head home, pack up, and we'll send you off from the South gates on the eighth hour of tomorrow morning."

"Okay! Thank you Master Spyro!"

"Thanks Dad! See you all soon, friends!"

"Hey Ignitus! Let your mother know when she gets back home that I'll be home a little earlier tonight."

"Gotcha Dad! Bye!"

Spyro watched the group of young dragons wing away toward their respective homes with a smile. As he was about to take flight himself, Spyro stopped to hear the tall shrubs and bushes lining the grass behind him rustle. He put his paws back down on the ground and cleared his throat loudly before he called out with an amused smile on his face.

"Mikeal. And... Arin, I believe? I do not care what you are doing back there. But I advise finding a spot outside of the Academy grounds for next time."

A pair of gasps proved his Windsense correct as Arin and Mikeal hastily left the cover of the shrubbery. Mikeal saw Spyro had his back turned and shot him a foul look while he led Arin out of the grounds.

Spyro shook his head and chuckled deeply as he took off into the air and headed back toward the important responsibilities of the Grand Master Guardian.

* * *

XxxX

Teslie made it home first. The sun was just deepening it's orange hue over the horizon as her home on the hill came into view. She flapped a little to gain some altitude, and glided up and over her house. She noticed the dark crater in her workbench immediately, and released an exasperated but slightly amused sigh. Ignoring the bench, she landed on the porch and used her claw to pull up a false wooden board in the deck.

With practiced ease, she fit her two-pronged tail tip into a specifically designed metal slot and released a small but precise amount of electrical power through her tail. A barely audible click sounded in the door just before she closed the false floor board and walked through the door.

"Hello, Mom and Dad. I'm home!"

Merelille replied from her desk in the other room. "Hi Teslie! Your father already left for work. How are you?"

"I'm very well, thanks Mom. Did Dad have to go take the night shift early again?"

"Yes he did. He works so hard for us. In the meantime, I've had to take some of my work home. Editing for my friend's newspaper business is not a quick job, and the Thunderball Championship means more words to go over."

Teslie walked over and put her head on her mother's shoulder to comfortingly hug her with her wings while she also read what her mother had on the dark wooden desk.

"You missed one Mama. Right there on the third line of the fifth paragraph."

"Oh, burn me. I can't believe I missed that. Thank you Teslie."

"You're welcome." Teslie placed her satchel of books on the table cluttered with her father's project notes.

"What made you and Dad volunteer to come with us tomorrow, Mom?"

Merelille turned to face her daughter with a little bashfulness in her expression.

"Well, I actually wanted to talk to you about that. When Master Spyro was telling us about what he wanted to do. I realized that Tielo and I had not been on a vacation ourselves for quite a long while. So I... Kind of just blurted out that we would like to come and join you. But then after Spyro left, I thought about you, and how you would feel about your parents being there while you were supposed to be just with your friends. I didn't want you to feel like we -but especially your father- would embarrass you. So, are you okay with us coming?"

Teslie sat on her haunches and stared at her mother for a couple seconds. This wouldn't be the first time her parents have met Kayla, Ike, Ignitus, or Bralor. But it would be the first time that they would be part of the group, and be with them for a longer period of time. So Teslie took a breath and answered her mother with a confidently reassuring smile.

"Yes, Mom. I am perfectly okay with you two coming. I am comfortable with you and Dad, and you don't need to worry about embarrassing me at all."

Teslie gave a humor filled smirk. "In fact, you should have heard Ignitus say that Dad is a 'pretty cool guy' earlier. And I even heard Ike say that you are even more intimidating than I am."

Merelille looked at her daughter with surprise. "Really? Haha! Oh, I'm glad. Especially about being intimidating. I'm looking forward to this little overnight vacation with you Teslie. By the way, which place did you and your friends choose?"

"We are going to the beach."

"Ooh! That's great! I was hoping that's where we would go."

They wrapped each other up with their wings in a warm hug.

Teslie released her mother to look up at her. "I'd better do a little bit of preliminary packing before we make supper. Just so I can sleep in for a little while in the morning."

"That sounds like a good idea Teslie. Would you mind packing up our beach stuff too?"

"Absolutely Mom."

Teslie turned to face the stairs leading up to the second floor with her room. And as she walked up, she grinned and did a little hop up the stairs in eager anticipation for the next day.

xXXx

* * *

"Ike, I really don't think that Nira is 'into you' at all. She simply said hi."

"Naw, c'mon big blister. She's gotta have a heart as cold as yours if she doesn't find 'this' attractive."

Accompanying his words, Ike stopped before reaching the steps to their house and flared his wings out to catch the orange rays of the falling sun as he tilted his head up in what he thought was a dashing grin while he flexed his slim chest and forearms.

Kayla scoffed at his irrepressible behavior and rolled her eyes as she knocked at the blue door. "I'm not your 'blister' my little bother."

Ike saw the curtains move as he watched his grandmother's silhouette walk out of the living room. The door opened and they were waved in by Alaina.

"Hello Ike and Kayla! Well? Where are you going? Didn't Master Spyro tell you?"

"Tell us where?"

"Ugh, by the Ancestors, Ike. The beach, remember?"

"Oh! Right. We're going to the beach!"

Alaina raised her eyebrow. "I gathered that. Thank you Ike."

Ike chuckled.

"That's so exciting! I'm so glad you both get to go out again. Oh my. Get in here you two. It's no good standing outside the door like that."

They both walked in to their home and started going to their separate rooms to set the satchels down. Kayla noticed the yellow floor cushion next to the table that Spyro used when he was there as she walked by.

Ike hardly heeded the familiar sight of his exceedingly messy room as he tossed his satchel onto the pile of stuff on the floor. But his eyes caught the shiny padlock laying next to his lock picking set, and he sat on his haunches as he picked it up on impulse. With an impressive display of dexterity, he held the lock in one paw and deftly unlocked it with the tools in the other. Ike grinned and congratulated himself on the swift display of that skill.

"Ike? Would you come reach this bowl and get it out of the cupboard for me?"

"Coming, Grandma!" Ike dropped the lock back on the pile and got up to walk out of his room. He saw his sister setting her satchel down on her desk as he passed by her bright and femininely decorated room.

Reaching the kitchen, Ike maneuvered around his grandmother who was busy prepping the beef pieces to be cooked and headed for the far upper cupboard. He reached up on his hind legs to grasp the big wooden bowl with his dexterous paws and set it down on the counter.

"Thank you, Ike. My poor old shoulders don't let my arm reach that high anymore."

"You're welcome. Anything else I can do?"

Alaina got out a wooden cutting surface and a knife from a drawer while raising an eyebrow at him again. "Feeling industrious today, Hmm? Well, there is in fact another thing you could do. Would you slice up the mushrooms in the bag on the counter?"

With a shrug and a nod, Ike started that chore as Kayla came out to add her help in making the meal.

With the combined help of Kayla and Ike, supper was soon ready. And Ike inhaled the savory scent of the beef and mushroom stew as they sat down around the table and ate in silence together for a little while.

"Kayla?"

"Yes, Grandma?"

"Do you remember much of your mom or dad?"

Kayla tilted her head slightly as she considered the question. "What makes you ask that?"

"When Master Spyro was here, he was curious about what happened to your parents."

"Oh."

Kayla took a bite of her meal to think before answering.

"I don't remember Mom very much I guess. Just that she was sick. But I think I remember seeing Dad being upset about it. And when he noticed me watching him, he turned to me with a big comforting smile that made me feel safe. And he told me that everything was going to be okay. Actually, I'm pretty sure that might be my earliest memory."

Alaina nodded with a slightly sad smile on her face. "Hmm. Thanks Kayla. You both remind me of them so much. And I'm very proud of you both."

Ike and Kayla smiled.

"What about us reminds you of our parents?" Asked Kayla.

Alaina gave a light chuckle. "One of the things is what you just did right there, Kayla. Your father Matrim was quite good at asking pertinent and keep-the-conversation-going questions. It was one of the things I appreciated about him when he was courting Rylin. The first time He had dinner at our house in Greentide, instead of being nervous about what to talk about while eating a meal with his girlfriend's parents, he just asked really good questions. It was one of the most stimulating dinner conversations I remember."

"What about me?"

"Well, Ike. You got most of your father's humor. But like you, Rylin enjoyed learning as many skills as she could. She learned how to paint, play the dragolin*, cook meals, use earth to make beautiful flower gardens, and she even learned to speak a little of the Ancient Draconian Tongue."

Aliana chuckled again as she recalled a memory. "In fact. Her friends soon learned not to promise things they could not keep. Because she knew the Binding Commitment phrases in that language, if they didn't keep their end, the power of that promise would consistently remind them and they'd feel guilty until they apologized."

They all laughed and continued conversing as they ate their meal. Once supper was finished and dishes were cleaned, Alaina suggested they head to their rooms and pack some supplies before the morning. A notion they eagerly agreed to.

"Oh! Before I forget. What time are you all meeting and where?"

"We need to be at the south gates by the eighth hour. And we won't be coming back till' the afternoon of the next day."

"Thanks Kayla. Alright, go pack up now."

As Kayla skipped back to her room, Alaina laid back down on the cushions in her book corner. She wished she were still young enough to go with her grandchildren as she groaned reproachfully at her old joints.

Listening to Ike and Kayla talk about what they would need to bring. Alaina picked up her book again and smiled when she thought about how much fun they'll have.

XxxX

* * *

Ignitus was so excited. A trip to the beach! Ignitus kept absentmindedly out pacing Bralor on the flight home. And before they landed on the balcony, Ignitus did a aerial front flip and landed on the railing.

As he perched there smiling like a goof, Bralor landed in behind him with a strong gust of air from his massive wings and landed normally before digging in his satchel for the key into the house.

"Alright! I can't wait to go to the beach tomorrow! You excited Bralor?"

After finding the key, Bralor glanced over at Ignitus with an expression that seemed to say 'um, duh'.

"Yeah, stupid question. Anything in particular you are especially eager to do?"

With a click, the double doors opened inward with the two dragons right behind them.

"I am eager to do whatever the rest of you are eager to do." Bralor said as he closed the doors behind them.

"Aw phffft, that's not the answer I'm looking for." Ignitus smoothly caught the key that Bralor tossed to him and set it in the glass bowl on the stand next to the doors.

"Okay, let me put it this way. If your were going to go to the beach by yourself; what would you do?"

Bralor shrugged off his satchel and walked over to turn on the house lights. "Practice swimming."

Ignitus raised an eyebrow and shook his head. "Geez, you are boring."

Bralor's chiseled face almost concealed a small smirk. And not for the first time, Ignitus marveled at how much Bralor could say in such few words. Bralor then looked actually amused, as if he read his mind.

"Well, maybe we can get a head start on making supper before mom gets home. Are we gonna need the meat we had for breakfast?"

Bralor shook his head as he headed into the kitchen. He opened the door of the preserver and got out the plate of leftover mutton roast from that morning and some cheese, then opened a bag of bread and set down two slices on the counter.

"Um, you do realize we'll be eating supper in a bit right?"

Bralor continued making the massive sandwich as he nodded and shrugged. Ignitus rolled his eyes. Most male dragons at this age are eating machines, but Bralor is something else.

"I'll be back Bralor. Gotta go feed Singe."

Ignitus walked down the hallway to his room and opened the door. Seeing Ignitus, Singe the Magmabeetle started happily buzzing around the glass cage.

"Hey Singe. Happy to see me?"

Singe bonked into the side of the glass and flopped into his magic bowl of perpetually hot lava.

"Hmph, I think you're just excited for food huh?" Ignitus smiled as he grabbed a paw-full of the warm orange Fahrenmoss and pushed it through the feeder. Singe scrambled out of the bowl and started nibbling at the smoking moss.

"There you go. Don't go and bolt down it down all at once, you hear?"

Ignitus chuckled at himself for talking to Singe. As he left the room, he heard the balcony doors open and Ignitus heard the unique click of his mother's claws on the hardwood floor.

"Hi Mom!"

Cynder turned to smile as Ignitus half jogged down the hallway to greet his mother.

"Hello my little ones!" Cynder wrapped Ignitus in a enthusiastically warm hug. She released Ignitus and walked over to Bralor to kiss him on his broad forehead as he smiled up at her around a mouthful of mutton sandwich.

"And how are you two today?"

"Well, I'm sure Dad told you about what he was planning, didn't he?"

Cynder smirked. "Yes he did. Are Kayla, Teslie, and Ike able to come?"

"Yes they are! Teslie's parents have even volunteered to come with and keep an eye on us. And we'll be going to the beach too!"

"That's fantastic! I'm so happy for all of you! You will have so much fun."

"Oh! Before I forget; Dad wanted me to let you know he is going to be home a little earlier tonight."

Cynder nodded. "Thanks for remembering to tell me. Well then, let's get some food on the table before your father comes home, shall we?"

Bralor finished the last bite of his sandwich, then he got up and rumbled, "Agreed."

The kitchen was soon full of activity as they got to work on making the meal. Making supper together is practically a tradition in Spyro's family. Spyro's dragonfly parents always had Sparx and Spyro help make the food, and Spyro wanted to continue that with his kids. So they soon became a remarkably efficient team. In a relatively short time, Cynder, Bralor, and Ignitus had a meal of sweet-glazed venison steaks keeping warm in the side space of the open oven.

They did not have to wait long. Ignitus heard the heavy wing-beats of large wings and a thump as his father landed on the deck. The doors opened, and The Restorer of the World walked through them.

But before Ignitus could say a word, Cynder dashed passed him in a dark blur and pounced on Spyro. They both laughed as Spyro caught her in his paws and spun around with a grin of raw joy before setting her down to pull her in to a deep hug. They pulled apart only to enthusiastically kiss, then separated as Spyro moved to hug his sons.

Ignitus grunted as his father squeezed him tight and playfully growled.

"How was your day today, Ignitus?"

Recalling the events of the day, Ignitus was reminded of the stressful confrontation with Mikeal. But Ignitus pushed that aside and grinned up at his father.

"It was exhausting, as usual. Airborne Acrobatics was especially tough though. Oh! But I aced the Culture Studies quiz today!"

"You did!? That's fantastic Ignitus, I'm proud of you."

Spyro clapped Ignitus on the shoulder as Ignitus beamed at his fathers praise.

Then Spyro turned and grabbed Bralor without warning and wrapped him up in a classic draconian grappler's hold, with his head catching Bralor's horns from behind and his fore-paws holding the base of his wings.

Bralor automatically preformed the according defensive maneuvers with impeccability born from intense repetition. Narrowly avoiding the kitchen table, he threw his weight backwards and down as he ducked his head, sending his father farther over his shoulders, then Bralor planted his fore-paws under Spyro's arms and leveraged his head under Spyro's chin to push up and away, disengaging the grip on Bralor's wings and allowing Bralor to push away and create space between him and Spyro.

Spyro chuckled as Bralor breathed a little heavier than before.

"Haha! Well done Bralor! It's little harder against someone bigger than you huh?"

Bralor nodded sagely as he folded his wings back against his back.

"All right you two, can we eat now?" Cynder swished her tail with a sarcastic expression of long-suffering.

Spyro grinned. "Yes, I believe so."

* * *

 **Whoohoo!**

 **There it is! Let me know what you thought!**

 **I was asked by an account-less reviewer:** **Why does Spyro have the element of wind when he does not have it in the games?**

 **That is because I believe that the element of Wind should be one of the five core elements. And -(according to _my_ headcannon)- as a true purple dragon, Spyro can learn and master any element he comes across. Including the 'unnatural' ones such as Shadow and Fear. He never encountered the wind element until he and Cynder were freed in Dawn of the Dragon. And because of the constant combat; he did not have the time to learn it until after the defeat of Malefor. **

**I tried so many times to answer that question somewhere within the story instead of in an Author's Note, but I couldn't find a place to put it in that didn't sound forced or weird.**

 **I hope that answers your question potato_of_doom!**

 **-** **L** **et it be known and recognized that I will only answer questions from account-less reviewers on my chapters unless the questions are especially pertinent to the story.-**

 _Dragolin_ *: A stringed draconian instrument played by plucking the strings with claws and bowing across them with a bow strapped to the tail. Like a cross between the inside of a grand piano, a harp, and a cello. Expert dragons play with all four legs and their horns.


	6. Chapter 6: The Fun Before

**Welcome to the next chapter of The Next Generation!  
**

 **I'm now out of the first "leg" of my story! And now I'm almost on to the start of my original Idea for the plot of The Next Generation.**

 **I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who has reviewed my story so far. I appreciate all of you v _ery much._ And let me say again- if you see any grammatical, syntax, or punctuation errors: go ahead and let me know. I will fix them. I have trouble seeing when I make run-on sentences. If you see problems with how a sentence is phrased, or maybe my imagery was lazy, or maybe the dialog felt off: please let me know. I am very receptive to constructive criticism because I really want my story to be of _good quality._  
**

 **Plus, I enjoy talking to people. So that's a thing.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

 **The Fun Before...  
**

* * *

One thing was certain; the Spyro household made incredible meals. Conversation stalled as the sweet-glazed venison was consumed with enthusiasm. And Ignitus was not surprised when Bralor was the first to get up for seconds. Soon afterwards, plates were licked clean and Ignitus and Bralor dutifully picked up the dishes and carried them to the polished granite sink.

"Thank you very much boys." Cynder smiled.

"You have trained them well." Spyro joked as he stood up.

" _We_ trained them well, my love."

"Well _I'll_ go take care of those dishes for you... Fire of my heart."

Cynder raised her eyebrow and smirked as she leaned her head into her paw. "Fire of my heart? Hmm, now where did that come from I wonder?"

Ignitus only half listened to his parents exchange as he continued to clear off the dining table. This kind of banter was romantically normal for them.

Spyro seemed to stutter as he replied. "It, uh... Just happened to pop out of my head, I guess. Um... Just because it's true."

Spyro blew a small but highly concentrated stream of fire over the smooth ceramic dishes, efficiently sterilizing them, then rinsed them under the tap water, and blew on them again to dry. He glanced over to see his wife wearing an expression of suppressed laughter.

"What?"

Cynder chuckled as she sashayed her way over to him, then smoothly hooked her bladed tail up behind his horns to pull his face down to hers.

"I'm laughing because I know you didn't just come up with that. But also because I know it really is true."

Ignitus rolled his eyes and grimaced as he tried to ignore the smooching sounds, and busied himself with helping Bralor put the dishes back in the cupboard.

"Alright boys." Cynder released her husband. "How are you going to prepare for the next couple of days?"

Ignitus put the final dish in. "I'll go figure that out! C'mon Bralor, let's go pack."

Bralor did not immediately respond. He seemed to hesitate before finally speaking.

"Actually Ignitus, would you mind sitting back down? And you too, Mom and Dad?"

Ignitus' brow furrowed in question before he nodded and shrugged before heading back to the table.

Spyro and Cynder looked at each other before sitting back down at the table as well.

"Do you need something Bralor?" Asked Cynder

Bralor sat down and looked up at his parents with a expression that somehow managed to be a little more serious than normal. "I just need to talk to you."

"Well, fire away son. You know we'll listen to you."

Bralor nodded with a small smile. "Thank you Dad. I was going to talk to you both about this before the Trial. But even with it being postponed I figured I would still inform you about a decision I've made."

He cleared his throat before continuing. "I love you all, very much. I cannot imagine having a better family. You've told me about how I was found, and how; as far as you know, I was not born here. And I know that after my Trial I am permitted to make my own choices, but... I wanted to ask that I have your blessing to go out and... And find any trace of my blood relatives."

Bralor's dark eyes calmly swept over his family to gauge their reaction.

"So you're just gonna leave?"

Bralor looked at Ignitus, who had spoken, and nodded. "After the Trial. Yes."

There were a few more seconds of silence before Spyro spoke. "You are sure?"

Bralor nodded once.

Spyro locked eyes with Cynder and seemed to have a silent conversation before confirming each other's thoughts.

"What do you think Ignitus?"

Ignitus was caught off guard by his Father's question. What did he think?

"Um. I... I dunno. You'll be coming back if... I mean, after you find them, right?"

"Yes."

"Well... who am I to say no? But, where would you even start looking?"

"From what I know." Bralor explained, "I approached Warfang's walls from a south-west direction. I've looked at many maps, and there are plenty of small villages and civilizations I could have come from in that direction. Apparently I knew my name before I arrived at Warfang, so that means my relatives and maybe some people who knew them might know my name as well. Unfortunately my first name and my physical characteristics would be the only things other people would have as a reference."

Ignitus nodded before Spyro interjected with thoughtfulness apparent in his expression.

"That's true. But as far as the journey itself; you wouldn't be lacking supplies. Or money either for that matter. It's fortunate you are more thrifty than Mr. "buy-everything-I-like-Ignitus" over here."

Ignitus smiled sheepishly.

"And you have much more combat and special elemental training than normal dragons, thanks to your Father and Me." Cynder said as Spyro nodded in agreement.

"Are you going to tell Ike, Kayla, and Teslie?" Ignitus asked.

"Yes, probably during the trip tomorrow. And I'll also inform a few others from the Academy."

There were a few seconds of silence as Ignitus digested the information before Spyro spoke again.

"Yes, Bralor. You do indeed have our blessing." Spyro smiled as he saw through Bralor's well-hidden expression of relief.

"Thank you Mom, Dad, Ignitus. I took quite some time for me to think through all this, and I'm very thankful to have all of you for my family."

Cynder stood up and walked behind Bralor to hug him. "And we are thankful to have you. Get over here you two."

Spyro and Ignitus also stood to gather around Bralor. Spyro's huge wings enveloped his whole family as they enjoyed the peacefully quiet family embrace.

A couple contentment-filled moments passed before Ignitus piped up.

"I think we should commemorate this day."

At his parents bemused expressions, Ignitus continued.

"As the day Bralor said more than two sentences at dinner time."

Bralor rolled his eyes as Spyro and Cynder burst into laughter.

* * *

XxxX

* * *

"Get your flaming fish-brained tail OUT of this house! RIGHT NOW!"

"GLADLY you maggot-eating lizard-lover!"

Mikeal busted through the front door of his fathers house and stormed down the street. He was pretty sure a hinge on the door blew off, but he was too angry to care as he ignored his Father's shouted obscenities.

After he'd traveled a fair distance away. He stopped and stood in the middle of the darkening road.

"I'm so flaming sick of that walking sack of rotting fish guts!"

Mikeal slammed his obsidian tail tip against the ground and growled. He realized he'd have to spend another night in the basement of his girlfriend, Arin. And in his anger fueled adrenaline he had stalked off in the wrong direction.

It was getting too dark, and even Warfang had rougher parts of town.

Feeling resentful and a little foolish, Mikeal briskly walked back the other direction, only taking the time to take some parallel roads so he wouldn't have to pass directly by his father's house.

Stars were showing their little lights up in the sky as Mikeal crept up to Arin's house. He'd done this so many times before; that the dark didn't impede him as he slunk through the tall hedges in a familiar path. Reaching the edge of the grass in the backyard. Mikeal saw lights still on though the second story windows. That meant Arin's mother was still up. Also meaning Mikeal would have to wait until the light turned off before contacting Arin.

So he laid down on the patchy grass and put his head on his paws as he prepared to wait. Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long. Soon the lights flickered and died, and Mikeal was already stealthily making his way to the side of the stone house where Arin's window sat one wing-span above the ground.

Mikeal concentrated and formed one small tongue of red flame in his paw and sent it up to flicker in the corner of the window. After a couple seconds, Arin's pretty orange face moved into the light and nodded. That meant it was safe for him to stay. Mikeal ceased forming the little flame and crept around the corner of the house to the basement entrance. He heard the sound of the latch and the quiet creak of the hinges as Arin opened the door and waved him in.

"What was it this time?" Arin asked concernedly as soon as she closed and re-bolted the door.

"He'd had a little too much Torathian Rum, again. Wasn't thinking straight I guess."

Arin moved to Mikeal's side and embraced him comfortingly with a wing as they walked to the makeshift bed of piled blankets in the corner of the otherwise barren cellar.

Mikeal sat down heavily on the pile and let his head hang as Arin left to grab a few more covers and a pillow. She sat down next to him when she came back and wrapped him in a wing again, being careful to not poke him with her spikier than average limbs.

"Wanna tell me about it?"

Mikeal sighed. "It was nothing other than normal. I tried to avoid him and be polite, but he got all defensive when I mentioned the amount of bottles in the garbage. He thought I was being "smarmy" and instantly got in my face about it."

"Oh Mikeal. I'm sorry for you."

"Thanks babe. And thank you again for helping me escape."

"And again, I say I'm more than happy to get you out of there."

"I appreciate you very much, you know that?"

Arin put her chin on Mikeal's broad shoulder and looked up at him. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

Arin hugged him tighter as Mikeal leaned his head on hers.

"It's so stupid that the whole kidnapping thing would happen right before our Trials."

"I know." Mikeal released a frustrated growl.

"And now we have to wait until they say it's safer before we earn our adulthood and get out of this place."

Arin rested her head on Mikeal as he huffed in aggravation.

"How about we talk about something not so anger-inducing?" Suggested Arin.

"Sure, like what?" Mikeal asked sullenly.

"Well, um... Master Spyro catching us making out in the bushes was kinda embarrassing, wasn't it?"

Mikeal let a reluctant smile slip from corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, I guess so. Hey, did you hear what they were taking about before we were discovered?"

"You mean about their "vacation"? So what?"

"It just proves what I was saying earlier; Ignitus' position was handed to him alongside a golden pacifier. And now, while everyone else has to sit and wait to complete their Trial, he and his friends get an escorted trip to the beach."

"Ugh."

"I know."

Mikeal shook his head as he and Arin just sat silently together for a few moments.

Arin suddenly placed her orange paw on Mikeal's slate colored chest and looked up at him with a daring expression.

"You wanna do something about it?"

"Huh? Like what?"

"Like, I don't know. Follow them or something."

"Follow them? Then what? Watch them have fun from our hiding spot? That sounds _so_ fun." Mikeal said with strong sarcasm.

"Well what if we don't hide? We could go somewhere else and have fun. All. By. Ourselves."

Arin walked her claws up Mikeal's chest as she emphasized the last three words with a sultry look in her eye.

"And if we are found, there are only two adults coming. So what are they gonna do? Send us back?"

"Yeah they would Arin. One would escort us back while the other stayed behind."

"No they wouldn't. It's a decently long flight, and they'd have to escort us back through the night. With only one adult that would be way too dangerous."

"Oh. That makes sense."

"You know what else this does? We _could_ just go all by ourselves, but speaking from a safety standpoint, if we do somehow end up having a real emergency; we have two adults who will feel obligated to help. We'd also get a mini adventure, and theirs is... Well, maybe not completely ruined. But at least ruined a little bit." Arin chuckled. "Nothin' like some petty revenge just for spite."

"What about our parents?"

"Phfft. You think they'll care at all? Your Father probably won't even hear about it, and my Mother was the one who taught me how to be spiteful and vindictive in the first place. She'll think all that drama is just fabulous."

Mikeal sat still for a second as he considered Arin's plan. It would definitely be better than wasting another weekend with nothing to do.

He made his decision on impulse.

"You know what? Let's do it."

Arin grinned with slightly malevolent air.

"What time will they be at the front gates?"

"Uh, the Eighth hour, if I remember right."

"Alright Mikeal. We have some packing to do."

XxxX

* * *

The morning went by rapidly. Breakfast was eaten with excited enthusiasm, pack satchels were double-checked, and everyone soon arrived in front of the massive golden gates.

"Hello Spyro family!"

Teslie and her parents were already standing before the huge doors as Ignitus, Bralor, Cynder, and Spyro glided in to the promenade.

"Hello Tielo, Merelille, Teslie. You all set to go?" Ignitus responded to Teslie's greeting.

"Yup! We're just waiting on Kayla and Ike now- Oh! Well there they are. Hey! Well timed you guys!"

Ike and Kayla touched down on the worn cobblestone first, followed by Alaina who landed gracefully despite being slightly out of breath.

"We would have been here earlier, but these poor kids had to wait for me." Alaina chuckled as she sat on her haunches to recover.

"Nonsense, dear Alaina. Like my daughter said, your timing is impeccable! Good morning Spyro and Cynder! Come over and I'll show everyone exactly where we will be going." Tielo deftly pulled a carefully folded map from his satchel and spread it across the ground for all the adults to see.

Ignoring the adults gathered around the map. Ignitus greeted Ike with an appropriately rough horn crash as Teslie and Kayla embraced in a gentler fashion.

Ignitus grinned. "You ready for the weekend friends?"

"I know we are!" Said Teslie. "My parents are so happy to be able to do this with us."

"That's great Teslie! Guys, let's made this trip really good for Tielo and Merelille. They probably need this more than we do."

"Thanks Kayla, that's thoughtful of you."

"And don't forget to thank Master Spyro either." Kayla looked pointedly at Ike.

Ike rolled his eyes sarcastically. "Yes, mother."

Ignitus playfully whacked Ike behind his horns. "C'mon. Let's go see where we'll be going!"

"That sounds good."

"It is always wise to know where you are and where you're going." Bralor rumbled.

"I was just about to say the exact same thing." Ike quipped.

"Phfft. Yeah, right." Teslie scoffed with a smirk before she turned to join the group around the map followed by the others.

"-so we will probably cross over that river shortly after the tenth hour. Then we should be able to see that peninsula right there."

The adults all nodded as Tielo tapped a claw on the small bit of coast that stuck out.

"That's where we'll be?"

"Yes indeed Ignitus." Merelille said as she turned to face the young dragons with a bright smile. "Is everyone ready?"

Excited grins and nods answered her question.

"Well go hug your parents, and we will get this show on the road!"

Ignitus and Bralor walked over to Spyro and Cynder where they were both wrapped up in one big, quick hug.

"You both know the rules. Be mostly safe- and have fun." Cynder grinned.

"Have a great time sons."

"We will! No parties while we're gone, you hear?"

Spyro and Cynder laughed. "No promises Ignitus. Now get out of here you troublesome children!"

As Ignitus and Bralor walked over to join Teslie's family, Ike and Kayla kissed their grandma on each cheek before she enveloped them with her wings.

"Come back safe. And bring back some cool seashells back for me while you're out there, okay?"

"You've got it Grandma." Said Kayla. "Are you going to manage alright without us?"

"Without the two of you in my way, I'll be just fine." Alaina chuckled. "Now go and be blessings to your friends!"

With goodbyes said. The young group of dragons followed Tielo as he powered into the air and gave a wave with his wing. They climbed through the air before they all stopped to hover.

"THANK YOU MASTER SPYRO!"

Then they circled around and glided over the bright gold doors.

* * *

"There it is! I see the ocean!"

The line of dragons fanned out to see the green line of trees gently fade into golden sands. And the sands end at a moving line of soft white and a deep turquoise blue. The waves looked big enough to have some great fun with, and the breeze that had gently risen as they got closer was no hindrance to flight. The seaside air had a touch of a cool chill that balanced the heat from the mid-morning sun that warmed their backs and wings.

"Oh wow." Merelille gasped as she scanned the stunning horizon. "It's seems more beautiful than the last time I saw it."

"Was that a while ago?" Kayla inquired.

"Yes. Many years ago."

Merelille smiled like she was remembering some fond memory. And Kayla did not ask further, for Ignitus suddenly shot passed in a purple and crimson blur as he and Ike whooped joyfully, racing towards the sand to see who could touch down first.

Merelille got a gleam in her eye and smirked before yelling to the rest of the group.

"Last one to hit the sand is an elderly tortoise!"

She turned on a burst of speed that sent Kayla reeling for a second before she righted herself and grinned as she pushed her wings to catch up.

To her left, Bralor suddenly started swiftly gaining altitude. And Tielo, who was the caboose of the group, gave a barking laugh as he charged his wings with his electric element and surged forward to catch up. Teslie mimicked her father with her element as he passed her and giggled as she grabbed hold of his tail and ran up his back to leap off his horns to re-gain the lead on him.

"Hey!"

Teslie looked back and smirked impudently as she drew level to Kayla. Ignitus and Ike noticed them gaining and started flying harder to keep their lead.

As they passed the tree line and the line of sand grew closer, Ignitus looked back as he heard a loud boom from above them. Bralor seemed to have formed an earth torpedo around himself as he sliced through the clouds and sped towards the ground with stunning speed. Only seeming like a green blur, Bralor burst from the missile of rock and snapped his wings out to tear through the air a second before he hit the ground, the incredible momentum making his glide so fast he left trails behind his wings.

Bralor skimmed underneath Ignitus and Ike with inches to spare before Bralor slammed into the sand, sending up a wave of the golden particulates into the air, making Ignitus and Ike put their wings up to shield themselves before they hit the sand and tumbled over each other.

By the time everyone stopped at the edge of the sand, Ignitus and Ike had gotten up and were staring at Bralor, who was calmly sitting at the end of a deep furrow in the sand with the smallest look of self-satisfaction in his eyes.

"By my wings Bralor." Tielo gazed at the trench. "That was rather impressive! Whoever has said Earth Dragons are the slowest of the dragons are most decidedly incorrect. Now I don't even mind being the elderly tortoise."

Bralor dipped his head in acknowledgement.

"Well we're here!" Ike exclaimed as he shook sand off his teal scales. "Let's get set up so we can go play!"

"Agreed! But of course, I need to confirm that you are all aware of the safety precautions before you go scattering off like a cloud of senseless midges."

Ignitus wrinkled his nose in amusement at Tielo's odd simile, but recited the basic common-sense rules with practiced familiarity.

"Yes. Never be alone, inform you and Merelille about wherever we are going that is out of your sight beforehand, and use an element flare in case of emergency."

"Indeed." Tielo beamed. "Now off you go! Let's have a day!"

Everyone cheered as Tielo waved them away with his wings as Merelille proceeded to pull off her satchel and unfold a blanket to lay on top of the sand.

Kayla looked at Teslie with a raised eyebrow. "Sand fortress or just play in the waves first?"

"Waves!"

"You've got it sister!"

With a joyful whoop, they dashed off toward the water with Bralor following at a more sedate pace. Presumably to practice his swimming.

Kayla leaped over the first wave of the crisp water and dove into the second with Teslie a second behind. They splashed each other and laughed as a large wave rolled over their heads. The waves flowed up the beach and lapped at Bralor's claws before steadily retreating to be enveloped by the next wave.

"C'mon Ignitus! Let's join them!" Ike waded through the water and splashed Bralor with his wing as he gave him a cheeky grin. Bralor's eyes narrowed and his small smile turned playfully predatory as he started stalking through the water towards Ike like he was hunting.

Ignitus chuckled, knowing Ike's doom. Bralor lunged into a sprint and pounced towards Ike, sending mini waves up himself as he landed where Ike was standing in the shallows moments before. Ike seemed to barely touch the surface of the water as he nimbly danced and dodged away from Bralor's huge paws. His twitchy reflexes all that kept him from Bralor's grasp.

Ignitus watched with a keen eye as his brother set up a subtle pattern in his advances and lulled Ike into false security. Ike leaped into the air and laughed as it seemed like Bralor missed again, until he realized Bralor's heavy tail was going to sweep his feet as he landed. After a rather brief struggle Bralor had Ike fully secured in his forearms. Ignoring Ike's facetious protestations, Bralor waded a bit deeper into the water and unceremoniously chucked Ike into the waves next to the girls, splashing them as well.

They gaped at him in stunned amusement before assaulting him with splashes of their own, thoroughly soaking him in sea water as he chuckled richly and battled back with huge waves from his wings.

Ignitus dove into the fray as Ike's head burst from the water with burbling gasp. Ike covered his head with his wing to guard himself from the onslaught and laughed as he watched Ignitus get whacked in the face by an errant string of seaweed.

"Hey!" Teslie stopped splashing as she had an idea. "Let's do a Hydra fight! I call Bralor!"

"Nuh-uh! You can't call Bralor. Only your Father could have a chance of matching him."

"Well then let's get him over here Kayla! Hey Dad! We need you for a sec!"

Tielo looked up at the sound of his daughters voice. "What was that Teslie?"

"We need you for a Hydra fight! Think you're still young enough for it?"

Merelille snorted with laughter as Tielo raised an incredulous eyebrow at the challenge.

"I'll have you know," Tielo stood, and drew himself up to his full height, only two paws taller than Bralor. "Merelille and I were Hydra fighting champions back when I was your age. We hereby accept your challenge."

Tielo strode down to the water shortly followed by Merelille, who was still chuckling. With practiced ease, Tielo ducked down to allow his wife to nimbly climb onto his back and secure her fore-paws between Tielo's wing joints and his shoulder blades, and her hind-paws at his hips. Looking as unified as if they were one creature, they confidently walked into the waves up to Tielo's shoulder level.

Bralor shook his head in amusement and allowed Teslie to climb on his back in the same manner. Bralor stood still as a rock as Teslie found her footing and told him she was ready. With Teslie looking only a hint unsteady, Bralor walked into the water to match Tielo and Merelille perpendicular to the shore.

"You think you are ready Young-un?"

"You're going down you old drake!" Teslie teased her father.

"Then let's go!"

Tielo started advancing towards Bralor and Teslie, sharing a confident grin with his wife.

* * *

Several fun and carefree hour passed after Teslie and Bralor were thoroughly trounced at hydra fighting. Bralor's size and strength were the only advantages. And in the end, Tielo and Merelille's experience and fluid teamwork earned them a win of 7-1.

Kayla looked proudly on the massive sand castle she meticulously built. The falling sun was dipping into the ocean and lit the detailed creation with a soft orange glow, casting shadows across precarious bridges, bulwarks, and textured towers. The tide was rising, and the waves occasionally rippled into the large moat that Ike and Ignitus helped build earlier. Tielo, Teslie, and Merelille clapped in applause from their spot on the large blanket spread across the sand as Kayla dipped her head in a small bow and grinned.

"Look out!"

Kayla flinched and hopped back as a crude but sturdy little Springwood and Broadleaf kite slammed into the sand one tails length away from her.

Ike came bounding across the sand with a sheepish grin. "Sorry sis, with the wind picking up it's getting harder to control this thing."

"So that's what you and Ignitus were doing past the treeline." Kayla looked over the sturdy craftsmanship.

"It's not half bad, isn't it?"

Ignitus strode over, coiling the vine attached to the kite around his paw. "I'm rather proud of this one. These are so fun to make when you have the right materials, time, and a good partner. Right Ike?"

Ike picked up the kite and whooped in agreement as he tossed it back into the wind. It rose gracefully as Ignitus guided it up with the knotted vine.

Kayla joined the others on the blanket and sat down next to Merelille. Tielo lifted his voice and called to Bralor.

"Hey Bralor! We're about ready to start the fire for dinner. Would you mind swimming back to help?"

"On my way!" Bralor's thundering call cut through the wind as he spread his wings in the water and rode a wave back to shore. He vigorously shook the seawater of of him before he reached the group. Ike and Ignitus joined them as well just as Bralor finished pulling large stones of from under the sand with his element and arranging them for the fire pit.

"Off you go boys." Teslie smirked. "Bundles of dry firewood."

They rolled their eyes and scoffed at her facetiously imperious command, but they ran up past the tree line anyway. They came back shortly with tied bundles of sticks and wood logs set between their wings.

Twilight was deepening, leaving the sky brighter than the ground under it. Tielo swiftly had a merry fire going with some well placed sparks, and it sputtered and danced in the cooling wind.

Tielo leaned forward to address the young dragons. "Do you all want to see something really cool?"

Puzzled but curious, everyone except Merelille nodded, she simply smiled knowingly as she prepared dinner.

"Alright," Tielo grinned. "I'll be right back."

He got to his paws and headed closer to the ocean. With his back toward the group, he scooped up a small amount of slightly damp sand and channeled his electrical power into it, causing it to glow and pulse. Tielo returned concealing the sand in his paw as he instructed everyone to close their eyes.

"And when I say 'now', open them. Ready? Three, two, one, now!"

A fraction of a moment before their eyes opened he tossed the sand into the fire, causing a bright white flash of light. Rubbing the spots from their eyes and groaning, one by one they looked at the fire to see it blazing in colors of blue, green, and violet.

"Whoa! What? How did you do that? Exclaimed Ignitus.

"That is a relatively simple but old electric dragon's secret." Tielo half-whispered.

"You are going to teach me that, father." Teslie's tone didn't have the sound of a question.

"Maybe, my dear." Tielo teased.

"That is really impressive, Tielo."

"Thank you, Kayla."

Ike just gaped at the multi-colored fire casting it's colors across everyone's faces.

"Who taught you that?" Kayla asked.

"My grandfather. He was where my uncle Volteer got his talent. Full of fun little tricks he was."

Merelille suddenly had everyone's attention as she pulled out hunks of mutton wrapped in Sanit leaves. Bralor grunted in approval.

"Once we've eaten, Merelille and I have prepared a campsite in the forest just past the treeline. It will shield us from this wind. Did you all have fun?"

"I most definitely did!" Teslie exclaimed.

"I sure did." Ike and Ignitus said in unison. They grinned and bumped paws.

"Yes. Thank you both Merelille and Tielo. We appreciate you coming out with us."

"Aw, thanks Kayla." Merelille smiled broadly. "And thank you all for giving us an excuse to come and just relax." Tielo put a wing around his wife. "Ancestor's knew we needed it."

Bralor, You're not speaking up again." Kayla teased with a smile.

"Indeed," Bralor chuckled deeply. "I was distracted by food."

Ha! Only you big guy." Ignitus laughed and punched Bralor's armored shoulder. "But Bralor's right. Let's get some food on!"

XxxX

* * *

Skort inhaled deeply as the scent of fire roasted mutton wafted through the trees.

"Aye, that smells right good."

Jurl winced at the volume of Skorts voice and whispered back harshly. "Keep it down will'yer? You know dragons have right good hearing sense."

"Yea, yea, I know. There are two grown up dragons with this group. We can't do anything with them. Let's go report back to cap'n anyway."

"Ah-wait a moment Jurl. Is that a purple colored dragon?"

"It is?" Jurl pushed the dark fur from his eyes with a mangled left paw. "I thought it was a eye-trick by the fire that the big yeller one did."

"Naw, that is a purple colored dragon. Say, wadn't there something special 'bout dose?"

"I dunno Skort. Let's make sure ta report that to cap'n, just in case."

"Aye."

The two dark creatures slunk back into the night.

* * *

 **Hi folks, I have an important message: I will be taking a hiatus for an unknown length of time.**

 **My life has vastly and suddenly changed. And I will be unable to continue working on The Next Generation for now. However... I want it to be known and recognized that no matter how long I am away, I WILL finish this story. My word is my promise. I don't want to be just one of those authors that start a story and then suddenly vanish without any explanation. I have a decent amount of Chapter 7 ready, so I might put up a "Teaser" so to speak.**

 **I will still be able to eventually respond to PMs, but because of certain circumstances of this life change, I may not be able to respond immediately. There is a high possibility that I will not be able to respond even up to many months. Please be aware that there is nothing I can do to change that, and If I do not get back to you promptly it is because I can't, NOT because I've ignored you.**

 **If you are curious about what the heck I'm doing and what is going on, feel free to go ahead and ask me, I just don't feel comfortable proclaiming it in public.**

 **For you authors out there: May you write like every day will be your last opportunity. I didn't. And I'm paying for it now.**

 **And for you readers: May your mind never stop having the yearn to read as much as you can. Keep your imagination spectacular!**

 **-I wish you all wonderful reading and writing.**

 **Buffbill**


	7. Chapter 7: The Storm

**Chapter 7**

 **...The Storm**

* * *

"A Purple Dragon!?"

The menacingly loud and incredulous voice shook Skort and Jurl to their bones.

"A-a-a- aye… Cap'n." Jurl stammered as his fur stood on end and he tried to keep his knees from shaking.

"Uh-huh. We swears it Cap'n" Skort nervously kept nodding.

Skort stopped nodding when a claw the size of a sharks tooth reached out from the darkness and hooked his sand-dollar and dragons scale necklace.

"This is a nice necklace Skort." The voice said softly.

Skort's eyes went wide with terror.

"If I find that you two are lying, or even simply mistaken, I will make sure that this won't have a neck to hang from."

Skort tried hard not to swallow with the large claw so close to his throat. Jurl saw his partners distress and spoke up.

"I do believe we will get to keep our necks cap'n. The dragon was purple, clear as day."

The claw retracted back into the dark end of the room. "Then report to the First Mate. Tell him every detail, then tell him I said to apprehend the purple dragon. No matter the cost. I do not care if there are two adults with him. Get. Me. That. DRAGON!"

With that last thundering command. Skorl and Jurl tripped over each other in their panicked haste to leave. After the door slammed shut, a match was struck and a small flame flickered in the dark, illuminating a long dark snout adorned with curling white teeth. The flame rose and lit a stout cigar trapped between the strong jaws.

"Vedfolnir, my message carrier. I have a job for you."

A large black hawk, previously invisible on its perch in the room, smoothly glided to the leather-bound arm raised for it.

"Send word to our buyer that we have some special cargo, and that it would be very wise of them to come prepared to give me… Hmm, at least four times more than usual."

The hawk nodded and leapt off of the arm to dive through an open window. It headed south, over the ocean.

Dimly lit by the cigar, the long snout smiled.

Ra'uul, Chief Jackal of the Third Fist and Captain of the Death Rose, was going to be rich.

XxxX

* * *

Ignitus' eyes snapped open when he heard the sounds of combat.

"Agh! Surprise is spoiled buckos! Latch them fast now!"

Ignitus looked up to see a dark furred and lanky canine figure shouting from high above in the branches, and Ignitus was suddenly and violently mobbed by an unknown number of foul smelling bodies of matted fur. Ignitus panicked and thrashed his limbs in effort to strike at anything and everything. Each time his claws shredded flesh and his limbs crushed bone another body took it's place until Ignitus felt a cold bar of metal wrap around his neck.

Belatedly, Ignitus attempted to use his Wind to blast everything away from him. As soon as he touched his power, a deep paralyzing pain spasmed and tore through his entire body. Ignitus couldn't even gasp as the bodies fell away from him and he collapsed to the ground jaw first. He still couldn't move, and his vision cleared to see what was happening to the rest of the camp.

Tielo and Bralor were surrounded but fought ferociously. Back to back they battled against long limbed black canine beasts that penned them in with a concave wall of shields and long spears. Bralor rapidly fired missiles of earth energy against the wall and encased himself with stone armor as he tried to push through the spears to reach Ike, Kayla, and Teslie, who were being dragged away back toward the beach. His missiles ricocheted up off the thick metal shields and exploded, sending shrapnel of earth energy down on their heads. He couldn't get past the spears. Each time he tried he came away with long gashes on his scales.

Tielo was a veritable whirlwind of lightning. He had the terrifyingly savage look of a desperate father trying to fight towards his daughter. The violent roar of his lightning almost drowned out the other sounds of battle as it lanced from his body and struck every exposed piece of flesh or fur. The shields were insulated. Each bolt that hit dissipated and became ineffective. He looked up to try to take to the air but found the tree limbs above guarded by figures with spears and short swords. His wings and paws blurred as he deflected the spears pushed toward him

Merelille saw them and sent a wave up blazing fire up into the trees, but they were too high up to cause real damage. She was a tempest of fire all on her own. The light of her power lit her eyes and warped the air with the heat. She was attempting to reach Ignitus. But she kept getting repelled, and Ignitus was already being slowly dragged away.

"Fall back! Fall back! We have what we need, Fall back!"

As the wall of spears and shields started moving back at their leaders orders, a thrown spear sank deep into Tielo's right side. As Tielo fell, one of the creatures took an opportunity with a gleeful expression and leapt on to Bralor's exposed back, latching a silver collar around Bralor's neck. Bralor swiftly threw the dark furred beast to the ground and suddenly convulsed. The canine barely rolled out of the way before Bralor fell, hitting the ground hard. Bralor was grabbed by the wing by several of the bigger creatures and dragged past the retreating wall.

The rear guard of the shields had reached the edge of the sand. And at their leaders command, they threw the last of their spears, causing Merelille to desperately protect her badly injured husband. Her blades of fire flashed and melted spearheads. She threw herself over Tielo as they were pelted by blunted spears.

Ignitus watched with wide eyes, unable to react or even look away. He heard the commander shouting orders.

"Get that Archer Guard up here! You, and you! Go make sure all our prisoners are knocked out. If they're not… You know what to do."

A fresh wave of panic gripped Ignitus. A company of Archers rushed passed, shouting and calling to each other. Ignitus heard someone get hit, and suddenly Ignitus was roughly rolled over to see a set of yellowed fangs and one glaring eye.

"Oy! This ones awake too! Gimme dat spear."

Ignitus helplessly watched the spear butt rise and fall.

* * *

 **Sorry to only put up a short little teaser. I just realized it might be a little mean of me. I really just wanted to get this out before I will be unable to do anything with it for a while.**

 **Love y'all!**

 **-Buffbill**


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